Sloth
by Espionage Commitment
Summary: Optimistic in her ability to move up in the world, Mayu Hidari spends her life on the streets selling day-old pastries on corners and going to sleep in an abandoned tea garden, alongside her "roommate" Gakupo. However, her life changes when an epidemic begins to ravage the city's population, and a chance encounter leads her to meeting a duke's awkward son.
1. 140,634

**This is the fifth part of a fanfiction series, my friend. You can still read it if you want, though. Order: Pride, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth.**

Back against brick, hood over head, feet beside a tin can, eyes to the ground. Holding their gazes only made them uncomfortable and less likely to toss me their annual dose of charity. Spring just dawned, and heat began seeping into the city streets. However, I would remain in my three layers of tattered cloth all year. My filthy skin would show and once again, my chances of receiving their pity would decrease drastically. I shriveled up into a ball on the busy corners, attempting to appear even younger than I was, in order to allow empathy to more easily pierce their hearts. Even with all of the precautions and techniques I learned over my many years on the streets, the most I would gather after many hours of sitting here only amounted to a few coins. Better than many, better than nothing.

To pass the allotted four hours a day of waiting, I would listen into conversations as they passed. Only the tiniest of snippets of sentences were audible to me, but they were enough to occupy my thoughts.

"I swear to it! The man learnt us everything you'd needa…" a young boy yelled at his friend in a heavy northern accent, riddled with grammar and pronunciation mistakes so characteristic of the upper dukedoms.

"I swear to it!" I repeated quietly to myself, imitating the accent to near perfection, hand over my mouth as to not let anyone see, lest they think I was a loon. "The man learnt us everything you'd needa…"

"He is more of a bastard than an heir!" a tall gentleman with a very red face raved to the woman on his arm. "His ignominious behavior around Duchess…"

"He is more of a bastard than an heir!" I mumbled, voice now clear and articulating. "His ignominious behavior around Duchess… Ignominious, ignominious…" I did not know that word, and I detested not knowing.

The tintinnabulation of bells resounded in the air for the fourth time since I sat down, marking the end of my day shift. I gingerly grasped my dented cup and counted the change as I stood up and stretched my back. Seven. Not bad, I could buy a loaf of bread with this.

Slipping seamlessly into the constant flow of people gliding across the sidewalk, I made my way through the wealthy portion of our great city Toragay, the capital of our dukedom Elphegort. Around me were six-story flats and high-end shops that the upper class wastes more and more money in every single day. Not all of Toragay was like this, not where I lived. Some mistook my judgements as acrimony for the affluent, but in all honesty I had accepted my fate long ago. I held no resentment toward the woman next to me who gently fanned herself with velvet and who stepped rather obviously away from the dirty homeless girl beside her. I did not even hold resentment to the Kagamines, the duke's family themselves.

The buildings' faces grew gaunter and the people's grew more haggard the farther I walked on. Beggars and working women stood post at every corner, and you feel the need to check your pockets whenever someone ambled past you. The sky looked paler here. Finer shops were tucked in corners, the only reason why anyone who could afford a four-room flat would come down here. I glanced fondly upon one such store across the street and three steps later stopped in front of my home.

In between a flower shop and a brothel situated in a glum alleyway was a squalid black gate whose only lock was a wooden plank along the inside. The dinky sign hung prominently on its bars read: "Property of the Snake and the Rabbit." No one would dare enter here unless they wanted to end up like the last ones. A tea garden, long abandoned, laid beyond this entrance, a remnant of the café whose building the flower shop now occupied. No roof shielded its occupants from the rain, but at least brick walls protected them at night. I kicked the door three times and purple eyes peered around the corner.

"How much?" the man asked with disdain.

"Seven," I replied in my true voice, the one I only used around a select few.

We stared each other down for a few long moments before I couldn't hold in my giggles anymore. The man stepped out into full sight with a triumphant grin on his face and removed the wooden plank to let me in. Ah, it was lovely to be home.

"How much did you earn?" I questioned, plopping down on one of the two steel chairs that was also left in the garden when we found it.

His grin shrunk into a smirk as he fixed back on the lock. "Eight."

I shot him a glare. "I see you also received the royal treatment."

"I've always been this client's favorite," he said, twirling around to put his glistening purple hair on display and bragging with his eyes that he was able to take a bath in his client's house after the work was done. With this occasional treat, his hair was much nicer than mine, all ratty and dirty blond to match my tarnished gold eyes. Not that I cared all that much. It was my housemate Gakupo's job to look his best.

"Lucky," I grumbled to myself.

"If you want to rack in the money like me, you could always join the family business," Gakupo sang.

"Very funny."

He said this often. "Join the family business." In all actuality, he wanted nothing more but for me to stay out of it. The constant teasing was more of a reminder that I, too, despised the idea of selling my body like he did. I had been attempting to coax him out of it for years, but he insisted that his homosexual clientele paid the big bucks. We needed all the money we could get our nobly hands on.

I stood and dropped my coins into a jar we kept in the corner, listening serenely to the satisfying clink they made. Gakupo did the same and waited for me to do the honors.

"Four months and seventeen days until we have enough savings!" I announced. The echoes bounced off the closed space and into the sky.

"And then," my friend added, "We'll have two warm beds!"

"And wooden floors!"

"And a stove!"

"And enough respect that we could get real jobs!"

"And make enough money to buy tons of food!"

"And therefore!" I finished with the lingering air left in my lungs. "We'll be happy!"

Four months and seventeen days until we could afford a cottage outside the city. Our future was so close, so close. At last, that empty space in my heart, vacant for as long as my mind could grasp, would be filled, and I would let nothing disturb that peace once I find it.


	2. 140,639

Every morning at a quarter until six, I would walk across the street and two buildings over from our home and venture into the alleyway to the back of a bakery. No one dared to sleep in this alley unless they wanted to wake to a broomstick being shoved up their ass. The Yuzukis were the kind of people who did not tolerate freeloaders or anything that could tarnish their business's name. They were seen as very strict and scrupulous people, which was why I sometimes wondered if their only daughter was switched at birth or adopted in secret.

I knocked on the off-kilter wooden door and was greeted with the stern face of Mr. Yuzuki. He merely grunted and vanished back inside, but the ajar door was his way of telling me I could come in.

The kitchen of "Yuzuki Bakery" was small but efficient. Already there were breads and cakes rising in the oven, and in the front the steady sweep of a broom mingled with the sounds of the fiery furnace. I pulled down the tattered hood of my cloak and let my disheveled hair down as I waited for one of the three precious friends I had in this world. As I heard her feet bound down the stairs from her apartment above, happiness swelled within me.

Yukari Yuzuki, or as her friends called her, "Yuka," held a bright smile on her face when she saw me standing in the center of the kitchen. Her purple hair was well-groomed and her dress always had an apron tied around it. A basket perched on her arm and early morning was painted across her features. Though she was two years older and four inches taller than myself, her vision of the world sometimes seemed childish compared to mine.

"Hi! Four months and sixteen days?" Yuka asked, bouncing on the balls of her feet like a kid excited for a birthday.

"Four months and sixteen days," I said. "What do we have today?"

"Let's see here." She scurried across the room and dragged a wooden pail out from behind a cabinet. "Ten scones, two loaves of bread, and a dozen madeleines."

"Nice. If I sell them all, you should get…" I struggled with the numbers in my head. "twenty coins, and I get ten."

"Exactly. I'm still trying to convince Father to split it fifty-fifty, but…"

"I understand. My labor is already expedient enough."

"Yeah, but don't worry! As soon as you get that place of yours, I'm sure I could get him to hire you officially! If you want to work here, that is." Yuka handed me the basket of the day-old goods.

"Of course I would!"

She grinned wider. "Good. Now, what's today's word?"

"'Ignominious,'" I recited in a haughty accent.

She frowned. "I don't think I know that one."

"I have managed to stump the great Yuzuki Yukari! It is a monumental day."

"You know very well that I don't know half the words you bring here! Make sure to tell me what that means when you find out, though. Maybe I could impress my parents with my colorful language."

"I'll do that."

Mr. Yuzuki entered the room with his quaking footsteps from the front. He didn't look at me, only his daughter, then walked right out. I decided to take my leave.

"Oh, Mayu! Did you hear?" Yuka called when I was halfway out the door. "The only son of the Kagamines just got engaged."

"Um, okay? Is that of great importance to me?" I replied.

"No, I just felt like it was interesting. You know, maybe you could find a decent man one of these days and get married and have dozens of kids and they could call me 'Auntie Yuka' and-"

I slammed the door shut.

One hour to walk to the affluent side of town. Another hour before the magnates hobbled out of their dens with their polished canes and brushed top hats. Far, far away from the bakery, as the agreement had been arranged two years ago the day after I turned sixteen and realized I needed to be able to add more coins to the money jar.

The sun had peeked above the flats when finally, my first customer sashayed toward me, pure white cotton dress swaying at her hips and a laced fan blowing her bangs back and forth despite it being late winter. Her glossed lips formed a ruminating scowl as she browsed the sweets in my basket.

"These aren't from that Yuzuki Bakary down on Julia street, are they?" she asked with a neighboring countries accent.

"No, of course not!" I replied, matching my accent to hers.

There was a small nod of approval and a slight step back from hearing a voice from her homeland. "Good. They are a bunch of rubes, I hear. Let's see, I'll take four madeleines for the family. How much are they?"

"One coin a piece."

"Here you go, thank you!"

"No, thank you, Madam."

A very valuable tool in my trade was creating a comfortable atmosphere for the client. Convincing them you are of the same origin is an effective way to do this. Gakupo called it "manipulation." I called it "using my God-given abilities." He always shut up when I mentioned the silverware that "accidentally" fell into his pockets in one of his patron's kitchens. After the divine fury I gave him from that occurrence, he never stole again.

All but one scone was left in the basket when I dropped it off at the back door of the bakery along with the correct amount of compensation. I grasped my coins tightly in my gloved hand, having given up on the usage of pockets after they were picked at least six times. The clock on a wall through a window told me it was three o'clock. Two of my coins went to a half loaf of stony bread and another five would be whisked off by the time I reach our savings jar. Only two would remain after a half day's work.

The only doctor's office that would accept the likes of me was owned by a man named "Hatsune." He was a kind man with a kind daughter that sometimes helped out when her husband was away. The daughter's name was "Miku."


	3. 140,642

Hatsune was out today, like most days, on house calls. I could tell by the distinct lack of the man's boisterous voice echoing through the small building when I entered. Instead of the nurse that usually occupied the front desk, a girl the same age as me played with a paperweight. Her short green hair glimmered in the lantern light and the frills on her orange dress bounced around when she stood up abruptly after noticing my presence.

"Mayu, how's it going?" she asked. I didn't see her that often, but when I did, she always had a strangely casual way of speaking in a strangely formal world. People usually said that something was definitely "off" about the girl; I had to admit that it was somewhat true.

"Good as ever, Gumi," I replied with a warm smile. "I'm here for the usual."

"Of course. Miku's free right now, I believe. Let me check. HEY, MIKU!"

"Yes?" A pair of cyan pigtails along with the head of a dazzling woman poked out of the door next to the desk.

"Mayu is here!"

"Oh, Ms. Hidari! Good to see your as punctual as always. Come in." Miku's voice was melodious and candidly perfect. Her beauty and kindness (not to mention wealth) had enthralled almost every man in the city when she came of marrying age. They tripped over themselves to reach her father's office and beg him for her hand. The lucky winner was an aristocrat whose business was about to go bankrupt. The dowry was the only reason he remained on his feet and now thrived in the inner workings of Toragay's illustrious banking system.

Her father's office, officially hers on days like these, was uniformly organized and pristine. Glossy wood furnished every wall and cupboard and the whole room was filled with warm light. "Do you have another word today?" Miku asked as she stood on her tiptoes, fishing a vial out of the cupboard with the pharmaceuticals.

"Ignominious," I said.

"That's a really good one. Let me think." Her fingers danced on the desk as she pondered. "I believe it means 'publically disgraced,' or something along those lines."

"It's like you're a walking dictionary sometimes."

"I doubt that, but thank you anyway. Here you go." Miku handed me the vial. I shook the clear liquid around inside and double checked it was the prescribed medicine. She outstretched her porcelain hand, and five coins fell into her palm.

"Thank you, Miku. I can never tell you how much this means to us," I said with sincerity. She and her father gave me a discount on this remedy to accommodate our tight budget.

"See you on Thursday?"

"Count on it."

The man and woman in the lobby wearing large hats and larger egos stared distastefully at me as I walked past.

The sun dared to peek out from under the clouds and looked upon the teeming streets with little to offer in terms of heat. Soon the noise of people was replaced by the screeching wind through cracked bricks and alleys as I walked toward my residence. A small child no more than eight sat with his knees to chin outside an antique shop. The coin had no partner to clink with when it fell into his outlaid bowler hat. Only one cent of metal remained in my clenched hand.

I heard the coughs before I saw the man. Gakupo could barely manage to unlock the gate before the fit grew painful to hear. He sat down on one of the cold metal chairs and opened his mouth wide to let me pour two drops of the serum I received from Miku down his throat. The coughing stopped after a minute more, and we reserved ourselves from making any comment.

"What's left over?" he asked, croaky but intelligible.

"Only one."

"At least it's something."

"That's right. Any clients tonight?"

Gakupo started laughing under his breath. "Yes."

"What're you giggling about like a little girl? Wait a second, wait a second, is it that guy who fainted that one time after he saw you naked?"

"The very same."

"Oh my goodness, I thought he would stop calling on you after that!" My face started to hurt from smiling this long.

"Nobody can resist this body for too long, darling." He struck a pose in his chair.

"Uh huh, sure. Keep telling yourself that, beauty queen."

"Thank you very much, I will. You know, you could make it far in this business. You have the looks under all that dirt. If we spruce you up, you'll be looking like a gem."

"Now that's even more ridiculous," I replied, then registered the sounds of bells in the distance. "Ah, look at what you did by distracting me, old man! I'm late to collecting."

"You mean begging, and who are you calling an old man!"

"Shush now."

I snagged my tin cup off the floor and ventured back onto the road, walking swiftly but not quick enough to deplete my energy. Energy was food, food was money, and money was in short supply. A group of sluggish men in matching hoity-toity uniforms had somehow gotten in front of me, blocking the sidewalk and completing obstructing my path. They walked in a formation around someone in the middle, a girl, one with golden hair. I was just about to make a detour onto the street to go around them when something silver glinted across my vision.

On closer inspection it was a small purse, an expensive one at that. Gems were fused with the clasp and the fabric felt like velvet. I picked it up and looked at the group of guards and the girl retreating away.

"Hey! Did you drop this?" I called. They didn't halt. I sprinted up to them and tapped the shoulder of one of the men. "Hey, I think the lady dropped this."

The guard whirled around offensively with a hand reaching toward the sky and stared at me in all my homeless glory like I was insane. Now that the shield of people was broken, I could clearly see the girl in the middle. Her face was petite and clean, and her eyes were turquois. Her dress, furnished with ribbons and roses, was silver and matched the purse exactly. Her features felt obscurely familiar, but my mind could not place them.

"It's alright," she said to the man with the upraised hand. "She has retrieved my purse unless, of course, you stole something."

"What? No! No, no. Everything's there. You have my word." My filthy hand looked like an animal's as I handed the bag into hers.

"Let's check then. If you try to flee, one of these men will certainly catch you." This girl was starting to get too creepy for my tastes. Maybe I should have put on a different accent. I was so alarmed my normal voice just slipped out.

She gingerly counted her many one-hundred currency coins and even a few gem stones. When the inquisition was over, she snapped the purse shut and raised her head up high to look at me, though we were the same height.

"Everything is here. You have my gratitude."

"You're welcome and all that. Well, I'll be on my way—"

"No, really," she interrupted. "I am genuinely surprised you did not steal anything. Most people in your position would walk away with it."

"Welco—"

"I don't know why, but I think I like you. Let me pay you back somehow."

"That is really unnece—"

"I insist. My name is Rin Kagamine. And you?"

It took a second to sink in. _Kagamine._ As in, the duke. As in, this is the duke's daughter. As in, she was one of the most powerful women in the country. As in, if I say something wrong she will legitimately make my life hell. "Mayu!" I blurted. "Mayu Hidari!"

"Good name, affluent-sounding name. Listen, Mayu. My family is having a little party tomorrow to welcome foreign guests who are coming for my brother's wedding in a few weeks. If you would like, you are invited."

I blinked a few times. "Huh?"

"I would have my maids clean you up a bit and loan you a dress. You would keep your identity a secret, of course. It would a very memorable night."

"Wait." I stopped her. "What?"

"If you are asking why I am doing this, I will be blunt. I am terribly bored. Your presence would be downright hilarious. To see a _peasant_ socializing with the most influential people in the world? I would be laughing until the next decade. Plus, I do enjoy challenges, and you are certainly going to be a challenge."

"Uhh." _Huh? What? Wait…huh?_

"Do you accept my offer, Mayu Hidari? I could always find another peasant girl. You are lucky enough to be present during this epiphany of mine."

"I suppose…sure."

Rin clapped her hands together in delight. "I cannot wait! One of my servants will come to you tomorrow at six. Where do you live?"

"If they ask for the Snake and the Bunny, someone will tell them," I said.

"Interesting. I really must be on my way, now. Goodbye, Mayu Hidari!"

She strode away, guards falling back into formation around her. I leaned against a wall to prevent myself from sinking to my knees.


	4. 140,644

I arrived at my spot against the wall at a train station ten minutes late. Only six coins fell from my hand to the jar that night.

"Did you get the groceries?" I asked with a sigh, sinking into one of the metal chairs.

Gakupo was lying on our single, bare mattress which we rotated sleeping on every night. He looked up from the newspaper he nicked from a trashcan somewhere upstate. "Yep. The price for apples were down, so I bought two. Better eat them by tomorrow."

I hummed, then dropped back silent.

"What's the word for today?"

"Finagle."

"Oh, I know this one! My ex-clients sometimes yelled that at me. Let me think. Agh, I can't remember."

"Hey, have you ever seen the Kagamines in person?"

"The Duke's family? No. Why, does it turn out the old man swings my direction?"

"No, no, probably not."

"You alright? You seem distant," Gakupo observed.

"I'm fine, I think. Something really strange happened to me today."

"Was it that gang again? Have they been bothering you?" Whenever he mentioned the gangs, his voice would always grow deeper and darker, greatly contrasting his everyday cheerful persona.

"No, not them. Rin Kagamine."

" _Huh?_ The Duke's daughter? You met her?"

"I know, it's so weird, but I was rushing to my collecting spot—"

" _Begging_ spot."

"And she dropped her handbag, so I did what anyone would do and returned it."

"You _returned_ it?" he gaped. "Any normal beggar would keep it. She has enough money to buy a thousand flats if she wanted."

"Are you suggesting I should have stolen it?" My eyes flashed dangerously at the languid man.

"No, Miss! I would never even entertain the thought."

"Mm hm. Moving on, I returned the handbag, and she started talking really unusually. Something about inviting me to some party they're having tomorrow and it being fun to dress up a commoner like I'm some kind of doll."

"Wait, you were invited to a party by a _Kagamine!_ Who cares what her intentions are. You have to go!"

"I would make a complete fool of myself."

"Who cares?! There might be good food. Make sure you pocket as much as you can."

"That's stealing."

"No, that's helping yourself to free food. Those rich people don't need any help getting fatter. Look at you, you're thin as a twig!"

"Do you think she's deceiving me?" I asked.

"Why would she waste her time deceiving someone like you? Come on, you have to go. For me and for you. I've always wanted to go to one of those fancy balls, you know. Maybe meet some handsome prince to whisk me away."

"I'm not looking for a prince."

"Everyone is looking for a prince."

"Something just doesn't feel right! Why risk it when we're so close to getting enough money for a flat?"

"Mayu Hidari, on your parents' graves you'll go. I will kick you out if you don't. I'm serious."

I pouted and sank further into my seat. This whole thing was just so peculiar, but what really twisted my insides was the foreboding that hung over my head like a cloud. Something about that Rin, something familiar and painful, something compelling me to not let this go.

"Fine, I'll go, but if I don't come back it's your fault."

"That's my Mayu, never missing an opportunity to find true love."

"Keep telling yourself that; it won't make it true."

He smiled a reptile smile and curled up on the mattress. In five minutes his breathing relaxed as he fell into sleep.

The morning was blistering and the butterflies in my stomach only increased the heat. I removed a layer from my dress of rags and slipped out of our garden like any other day. I passed by the sane gray buildings on the same gray street in the same gray district under the same gray sky, and the normalcy calmed my nerves for the time being.

Yuka held some sort of astonishing ability that told her whenever I was hiding something from her. As soon as I walked into the Yuzuki kitchen and looked at her, bells were ringing inside her head and her eyes grew grave.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"Whatever do you mean?" I replied dryly.

"You have a secret."

"Where is your evidence of this?"

"Your face."

"You say it like you have watched my every expression for a thousand years."

"Not quite a thousand, but close enough."

"What do you know of the Kagamines?"

"And you are not lacking ominous questions, hm? I won't say until you tell me what happened."

A sigh, a shifting of stance, a persistent gaze downward. "I met Rin Kagamine yesterday, and she has invited me to their soiree or whatever they call it tonight."

"HOW—"

"That's all I'm saying for now. What do you know about them?"

Yuka clenched her hands into fists and let out an exasperated huff. "God help me, woman. If you spare one single detail—"

"I won't! Come on, before I have to leave."

"Okay, okay. What don't I know about the Kagamines. Rich, powerful, most likely pompous. The Duke has two children. Twins, a boy and a girl. Their names are Rin and Len. Len was recently engaged to Luka Megurine of the neighboring dukedom, and their wedding is going to be kind of a big deal. Len doesn't really come out much, but Rin loves social events and traveling. Anything else you need to know?"

"That's good enough. I hope I don't make a total fool out of yourself," I said.

"No, not a total one at least. You are the best spoken person I know, and I know that you'll look stunning with a little cleaning up."

"You seem oddly confident."

"Trust my instincts, young one. Now, tell me what's actually going on or I'm going to be sent to the nuthouse."

Once I finished my relatively quick story of the strange girl with the golden hair, Yuka firmly nodded and handed me the basket of goods to sell.

"I'm not sure how tonight will go for you," she said, "But as a piece of advice, stay away from Len Kagamine and his parents."

"Why?" I asked.

"Becoming involved with any more of that family will only usher you into something crazier. Be careful."

"Thank you. I will tell you everything tomorrow."

"You better!"

I left the bakery half an hour later than usual. Half an hour nearer to the party. Half an hour nearer to what would change my fate.


	5. 140,645

I liked my life as it was so far. I liked my home, I liked my friends, I liked my roommate, I liked our dream, I liked working, I liked learning new words, I liked this city, and I liked that I had never grown to truly hate anyone. Gakupo told me that life was soaring by for me and I needed a bigger aspiration than buying a flat. He often suggested finding a man, but he was the only man I knew who respected me. I never resented the wealthy just because they were luckier than me, and I did not resent my circumstances as I saw many others in my position do. My field of perception only stretched as far as four months and fourteen days. Beyond that was emptiness.

That night waiting in front of the gate of the garden was exciting and terrifying, emotions I did not often experience to an extreme degree. The last time I felt like this was the night my parents died, so weariness overtook me quickly. Gakupo sat on the other side of the gate, back against the bars, and kept me company while I waited for Rin Kagamine's servant to arrive.

"Do you have a sack?" he asked.

"Why would I need a sack?" I replied, allowing myself the bemusement.

"To shovel in as much food as possible, girl! You don't get to hog the bountiful feast to yourself."

"How do you know there will even be food? It'll probably just be alcohol."

"Get that too, then. You're to young for it anyway."

"Excuse me!" I objected. "When you live on the streets, any age is the proper age to drink."

"That's the most feisty thing I've ever heard you say! This party is already doing you some good."

"Sh, sh! I think they're coming."

In the ailing light, a woman in a lady's maid outfit walked briskly down the sidewalk. Her hot pink hair was pulled in curly pigtails, and her small stature suited her cute face well. When she passed the gate she stopped, double-checked the addresses of the buildings adjacent, then finally spotted the sign that said "Property of the Snake and thee Rabbit."

Her eyes wandered hesitantly to my squatting, hooded form and whispered, "Are you Mayu?"

Pushing myself to my feet, the best greeting I could come up with was a little bow and a stuttering "yes."

"My Lady is waiting for you at the House," she said. "We do not have ample time to get you ready, and we're obviously going to need every second. Come, now."

Without another word, she grabbed my hand and pulled me along. It usually took me fifteen minutes at a fast pace to reach the center of the city where the Kagamine House stood. On more than one occasion I stopped the maid and explained short cuts that would take us there quicker. She did not seem happy receiving advice from the likes of me but followed along anyway.

The Kagamine House was more of a castle than a house. It stood like a watchtower, shadowing the whole city. The maid, constantly looking over her shoulder in the sea of pedestrians, took me to the back of the building to the servant's entrance. So far, this was nothing I was not used to.

You could not see the orange sky in the servants' hall since not one window provided light for the room. I got a glimpse of the kitchen and a peek at the bedrooms, but this woman was highly adamant on making sure I was not seen. When a footman turned into the hallway, she hid me in a closet until he passed. I felt no shame because even servants did not wish to be seen with me, only determination to work harder and gain their respect. Not tonight, though. Tonight was a night to enjoy myself.

After three sets of stairs, I realized how out of shape I was. Why did I tell Gakupo I did not need my ration that morning? The maid halted her fast pace and waited for me to catch my breath but not for long. She reminded me to keep my hood drawn, and we climbed the final staircase.

The grandiose hallway before me was wider than my whole home and taller than the sky. I could feel the coolness of the marble below my feet through the worn soles of my shoes, and paintings of many successful and important dead people peered down at me with their little oil frowns of disapproval. The maid gave me little time to gawk and pushed me forward to a room at the end of the hall.

Rin's bedroom was other-worldly. A king-sized bed with posts and curtains, love chairs with rose patterns, a silver vanity with a glistening mirror. I shivered when I looked at my full appearance; it had been so long. Rin sat poised on a tete-a-tete in the corner, already fully dressed in an opulent turquoise gown and jewelry to accent her beauty in all the right places. The maid bowed and I felt inclined to do so as well.

"Mayu, I am glad you came," Rin said. "The party starts in an hour, so we will need to rush. My maid, Teto, will attend to you."

"Oh, thank you. I know you told me yesterday, but I have to ask again. Why are you doing this?" I lifted myself from my bow and turned down my hood.

"I don't know why, but I really like you, Mayu Hidari. I feel like I've met you before somewhere before, and if you must know, I made a bet with my soon-to-be sister-in-law," she replied.

"What sort of bet?" I asked.

"She said she would be able to tell if someone was of lower class just by a single glance, even if they were pampered and trained and unrecognizable. My opinion differed."

"She sounds like a lovely person." The sarcasm was heavy in my tone.

Rin laughed. "Your first rule for tonight: do not speak your mind, ever."

"Got it."

"Okay, Teto. Spruce her up!"

Along the way, Rin asked me many questions. If I knew how to dance, if I had any form of education, if I ever lived in a proper house. No, no, and no. She seemed disappointed but The torture of having the nest that I called my hair being washed and yanked and torn made most things fuzzy. Somewhere in the pampering process, Teto gasped and dropped her comb.

"What? What is it?" Rin asked, getting up from her perch where she watched my pain.

"Look at these ends!" she whispered, pulling at my locks and holding them to the light.

I strained my neck to see what she was looking at and marveled when I saw green, purple, yellow, pink, and blue shining at the tips of my hair like a rainbow. A memory tugged at my sleeve, sometime long ago.

"Why didn't you tell me you had such pretty hair?" Rin demanded, examining it like a jewel at a museum.

"I-I forgot all about it. It's been such a long time..."

The dress they picked for me was blood red with black bows along the puffed skirt that reached the floor. Teto, having loosened up considerably during this hour, covered my eyes in front of a full body mirror and revealed to me a girl I did not recognize.


	6. 140,646

If I was not here, I would be dirt-caked on the streets, crouched down next to my little tin can and praying that someone would decide to be generous today. I would have gone home with my money clenched to my side and hear one of my best friend's gruesome and cringing coughing fits well into the night, being unable to do anything to help him. Stumbling down this extravagant hall with heeled shoes and a clean face, feeling for the first time in my life the slightest bit beautiful, I thought maybe I was in the nuthouse somewhere and all of this was merely a delusion.

"When we get to the ballroom, stop making that face like you've never been in a great House before," Rin told me as we hastened down a golden staircase. "And try not to walk around too much in those heels, you'll make a spectacle of yourself."

"Got it," I replied.

"Do not dance with anyone. I doubt anyone will ask you because no one knows who you are, but just in case. Do not speak to anyone unless spoken to and bow to anyone who looks like they own more than one summer home."

"Okay. How would I be able to know that is the case?"

"For someone with no formal education, you speak quite well. You should be okay with mingling conversation, but try not to draw it out. Many people from the city are here. I doubt they will recognize you, but do be careful." She never answered my question.

The upper floors had looked abandoned, almost ghostly from lack of use. When we arrived on the main floor, the air in my lungs was knocked out of me from witnessing the number of people. Everyone, even by uptown standards, were lavish and held their heads up high with a kind of flagrant pride I could never achieve. Rin fit right in.

"This is where I leave you," she told me at the ballroom doors. "Remember all I told you and do not under any circumstances reveal who you really are. Bye-bye!" Her blue dress and golden hair were lost in the crowd behind me.

Staggering breath in, staggering breath out. With great hesitation, I placed my hand on the cool brass handles of the grand double doors and pushed them open.

Inside was an even more fantastical display of how the other side of society lived their lives. Gold, everywhere. Grandiose people in a grandiose display, all moving with strained perfection like actors in a play. A man bumped into me from behind. I forgot I was blocking the door. I scurried deeper into the chasm of marble and lace.

Disappointedly, there was no food. Gakupo would certainly kill me. There was, however, quite a bit of white wine being ushered around on silver trays by sharply dressed footmen with absolute neutrality fixed on their faces. One of them glided next to me and offered a glass. I accepted.

Two violinists, a cellist, and a pianist played in the corner beautiful tunes I felt like I had heard before, maybe from someone playing a music box on the streets. Couples twirled around the center of the room with precision and hardened politeness.

One woman in particular seemed to be the eye candy of all the men and envy of all the women. Her glistening pink hair curled at her waist and her delicate face was forever masked in perfect bliss. Whenever a song ended, she bowed respectively to her partner and a new one appeared at her side in seconds. I beamed in admiration; she seemed like the exact opposite of me.

"Mayu?"

My body grew rigid and cold. Eyes darting to the source of the voice, they rested on the elegant Miku Hatsune, head cocked to the side and befuddlement straining her features.

"H-hi," I said lamely.

"What are you doing here? Where did you get those clothes?" she asked.

"Well, that's a good question. I've still been trying to wrap my head around it myself."

Another figure strut up beside Miku. "Hello, darling. Who is your friend, here?"

"Kaito, sweetie," Miku replied warmly. "This is just an old childhood friend of mine. Her father is a lawyer, and they moved overseas several years ago."

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Taro," I greeted a bit too loudly.

"The pleasure is mine," Kaito responded, never taking his eyes off of me. I resisted the urge to punch him in the gut.

It was common knowledge that Miku's husband was quite frankly, an asshole. He had unfaithfulness down to an art, spending little to no time at home and instead fraternizing with young, gorgeous girls who only needed a handful of flattering words to invite him to their beds. Disgusting, disgusting! No one ever talked about it around Miku, but she knew. If she wasn't so head over heels for Kaito, she would have left him long ago.

"Oh, is that Tomas over there? Let's say 'hello' to him, shall we?" Miku pulled at his hand to bring him away from me.

"Sure. We will talk again later, what was your name again?" Kaito asked.

"Yes, let's talk again. Bye."

Miku dragged him away before he pressed further, thank God. When they made it to this "Tomas" person, she turned toward me and mouthed, "You better explain later." I fully intended to.

Now it was back to standing awkwardly with a half-full glass of champagne in hand. Everyone was just so elegant and interesting. I could just watch for hours. Rin came in not long after I did, some handsome bachelor as her escort. Her decorous manner said enjoyment but the underlying look on her face said gut-wrenching boredom.

A shaky and high-pitched male voice from behind caused me to jump. "Do you know the Taros?"

I turned to my left, and my heart almost split in two. At first I thought it was Rin, that golden hair and those cyan eyes, but no, it was definitely a boy. A rather cute boy, although a bit short. He wore a standard vest and suit just like every other man here and looked very much like one of those people who owned two summer homes.

I curtsied quite tensely and replied, "I am an old friend of Mrs. Taro, but I only just met Mr. Taro."

"I see."

"Are you perhaps...Len Kagamine?" I asked. _Crap! What honorific do I use? Crap, crap, crap. His Lordship? Sir? Those seem a bit much, considering he's only one year older than me._

Len did not seem to notice. "Yes! It's nice to meet you..."

Shoot, he's asking for my name. "It's nice to meet you, too."

He shook off the blatant denial. "Have we met before? I feel like we've met before."

"That is unlikely, but nothing is impossible."

 _"You should be okay with mingling, but try not to draw it out."_ Rin would slaughter me if she knew I was talking with her brother, but for some reason I did not want this conversation to end just yet.


	7. 140,647

Standing and talking with the heir of the duke, calloused hands concealed by gloves, calloused face concealed by layers of make-up, calloused past and present concealed only by eloquence of speech and this boy's twin sister.

"Do you live in the city?" Len asked. We both resisted the urge to look at each other longer than deemed appropriate, watching the dancing and mingling of everyone else instead.

"No. I am just visiting," I said. "B-But, I'll be here for a while." I did not know why I added that.

I stole a glance at him and noticed he was looking at one woman in particular out on the floor. It was that pink-haired woman who had moved on to yet another dance partner. It would seem even Len could not help but be drawn to her. For the first time that night, I felt the slightest tug of disappointment.

The song ended and the gorgeous woman bowed to her partner and went off. I watched riveted as she approached Rin who must have slipped in some time ago. They chattered, the woman scanning the room, dwindling slightly on Len. Rin snuck me a wink. The pieces all fell into place.

"Her over there. She's your fiancée, correct?" I nodded toward the woman—Luka, I remembered.

His eyes fell down, embarrassed for some reason, as if having the most beautiful woman in the room as a bride-to-be was a tragedy. "Yes, she is."

"Do you love her?" Immediately, I wanted to slap myself upside the head, take a knife, disembowel myself, and die on the streets. _What in God's name are you thinking, girl?_ I hadn't the slightest inkling of an answer. It was like a ghost from somewhere far away took hold of me and compelled me into dangerously personal territory. I did not need to know such affairs, but the ghost did.

Len sputtered heavily. I closed my eyes in expectance of a dismissal and scorning, but none came. Instead there was a surge of laughter. "S-Sorry, I just have never been asked that before."

I quickly recovered my wits. "Really? Not even your family?"

His face grew solemn. "No, not even them. It was arranged, of course."

"Oh. Yes, of course."

"Are you married or soon to be?"

"Me? No, definitely not. I'm not someone most would look at in that way." I shooed away the notion like a fly.

"I doubt that."

Against my wishes, my face heated to an unimaginable temperature. "You never did answer my question."

"Which one?"

"Do you love her? Lady Luka Megurine?"

"I don't think it matters."

"That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard."

"I-It is?"

"Yes. Love not mattering to marriage is like water not mattering to the ocean. Wouldn't people be happier with someone they love in a small house than someone they barely know or maybe even detest but in a large house? Sure, they would not be living in that much luxury, but most people never even see the inside of a place such as this and live perfectly happy lives."

He looked at me wide-eyed like I was suffering from hysteria. Hastily, I added, "Or at least that is one way of seeing it."

"Wow," he said. "You're very…different."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

He smiled. "Good."

"You're very different as well."

"People tell me that a lot. Mostly my sister."

"Your sister invited me here today. She seems nice on the inside."

"' _On the inside'_ being the key part of that sentence."

"I'm sure having a sister must be nice at times."

"You're an only child?" he asked.

"Yes."

"That's rare nowadays."

"Yes, well…" _They did not exactly have the means to support another one, even if they were alive._

A song shift. I stole a glance at Luka, who eyed us suspiciously. Maybe she did not like another woman speaking with her fiancé despite her countless superfluous gestures to other men tonight. I thought men and women in high society were the other way around.

I was turning to Len to inform him that his bride-to-be was more than likely about to come over here and demand a dance when he blurted, "Would you like to dance with me?"

In equal alacrity, I replied, "Sure!" I was fully aware that I had no idea how to do this, but some ancient soul inside me said I could do it, that I knew how to and have done it a thousand times.

We stepped up to the edge of the floor. One hand raised in the air to meet his, the other resting on his shoulder as his was on my waist. Audibly, we both took a deep breath.

A woman's scream shattered the air, ripping a void in between all partners and pushing all our eyes to the back corner of the room. Already, people were gathering like moths to a flame around the still figure of a girl on the ground.

"She's dead!" a hysterical woman screamed, causing the room to gasp. "SHE'S DEAD! SHE'S DEAD! SHE'S NOT MOVING!"

"Everybody, quiet!" a man yelled. "I'm trying to hear her heartbeat!"

However, no one quieted down. I broke my petrified stance and rushed to the girl, just as the dignified began moving away in fear of being infected by death. Len shouted something as I went, but I could not hear him.

The man was still trying to listen for a heartbeat. "Just check her pulse!" I yelled above the unpleasant chattering. He did not respond. " _Check her pulse!"_ He nodded frantically and placed two fingers on her wrist. He closed his eyes a concentrated. I looked down at the woman, older and awfully pale, but pretty nonetheless. Her red dress and short brown hair had fallen around her like Sleeping Beauty. A chipped wine glass was still clenched in her grasp.

"I feel it! It's there! She's alive!" the man announced to the stricken room. Sighs of relief spread through every person.

Miku was at the poor woman's side soon enough. With medical experience, she should be able to do something. "I have sent word to my father, Doctor Hatsune! He should be here, soon! Would everyone please clear the room!"

They did not have to be told twice. Half of the spectators were out the door in seconds, and I was swept into the crowd like the pull of the tide. I looked around, but Len was nowhere to be seen.


	8. 140,648

News of the accident had not reached my side of the city yet. The farther from the manor I walked, the more noise dissipated until it ceased altogether. Now the starless sky frowned down upon me in its morose silence. Black heels were suspended above the cracked sidewalks by my fingertips, and if anyone would happen upon me with my clean face and silk dress, these gray bricks and this gray air would be sullied with red.

I decided that it was the best night of my life, an impossible night. Playing over the events over and over again in my head, a vague melancholy crept in through the seams. I told myself it was for that poor woman, collapsed on the floor with wine glass in hand on the edge of her life. That and something else, something even more impossible that it would get me hanged just to think of it.

My march halted in front of the dreary gate that served as my front door. I had no idea what the time was or if Gakupo would still be awake, but no matter. A shadow unlocked it and retreated back into the saturnine garden. With two fingers, I pushed the gate open, a cacophony of squeaks and squeals accompanying it, and stepped in.

A fierce rustling followed by the spark of a match. I could see my friend's blurry face through the dark. He lit one of our precious candles. "I was starting to believe you actually were kidnapped, you know," he whispered, dramatics voided from his voice for the first time in a very long time.

"Worry any more and I'd start to think you really are my father, _old man._ " I went over to the blankets on the cold dirt floor, my bed for the night.

He let out all of his suppressed tension in a sigh. "Did everything go well?"

"Mostly. I never blew my cover, but at the night was cut off short by a woman collapsing. I'm not sure if she had health issues or what, but she gave everyone a scare. I became lost after the crowd of people forced me into streets I weren't familiar with."

"Maybe it was attempted murder. Those aristocrats are vicious creatures-" he cut himself off with a coughing fit. Eventually, it subsided. "Did you find your Prince Charming?"

"...No."

"I can't believe it! There was hesitation in your voice!" He hopped onto the mattress beside me and held the candle up to my face interrogation style. "Tell me _all_ about him. Was is he rich? Handsome? I hope he was a gentleman or else I would have to have a firm conversation with this man who stole my darling Mayu's heart-"

"There is no man!" I shouted, maybe a bit to forcefully. "Even if there was, it's not like anything further could happen! He thinks I'm some foreign affluent whatever with multiple houses and a respectable upbringing, besides the fact that he is engaged- _would_. He _would_ think that and be that if there was such a person."

"You have never been so transparent in your life. Don't worry about those things! Cinderella stories happen more often than you think, and fiancees are not wives. Did he seem to take an interest in you?"

"Maybe."

"There you go. It's not like you're vying for the Duke or anything."

I kept my mouth shut.

"Mayu?"

"...Not exactly the Duke himself."

"Oh my God."

"Okay, bedtime! Goodnight!" I pinched the flame to engulf us in darkness, faced away from him in the dirt, hugged the thin blankets to my chin, and attempted to calm my rampant heart.

Gakupo woke me from my dreamless sleep even earlier than what I was used to. He motioned to our sitting area in the center of our home and silently demanded an explanation. I gave one, all of it. Rin, my hair, my dress, Miku, Len, Luka, that woman on her deathbed. Nothing was omitted, save for how the duke's son actually made me feel. I didn't truly know myself.

When he stumbled and coughed back to his bed, concerned but somewhere underneath, a little happy that I experienced such a night. He had spent a great deal of time examining my alien hair and gown, already muddied by my slumber on the ground. I realized I couldn't go out in this. For once, my old clothes sounded really good at the moment.

A shaky knock rattled the gate. Making sure to edge against the wall to hide my appearance, I peeked around the corner to see if anyone was there. A woman in a servant's outfit, finicky and constantly looking over her shoulder, golden hair leaking out of her hood, a bundle of torn and dilapidated clothing in her arms, stood in the faded blue morning light. I cautiously stepped out from my perch and unlocked the gate.

The girl turned around and nearly gave me a heart attack. Face hardly concealed in her cloak, Rin Kagamine looked me up and down with distaste. "You have managed to dirty the dress, I see."

"Sorry! Really, sorry, but why are you here?" I sputtered, checking behind me to see if Gakupo had awoken again.

"To return these rags and retrieve the dress, of course," she answered.

"I know that, but why didn't you just send a servant?"

She huffed. "Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Rin sashayed in the same way she would enter the Queen's palace. I did not think she noticed the breathing lump of blankets in the corner. "I didn't send a servant, because there is a personal matter I wish to discuss with you."

"And that is?"

"I saw that you were talking with my brother, Len, last night."

At the unsurprising mention of this, I swallowed my jitters to keep my voice stolid. "Yes, I did. I apologize if that was out of line. He approached me."

"I witnessed that, too. The problem is, though, that my brother yesterday after the party was ended early would not stop alluding to 'the girl with the rainbow hair.' I presume he was talking about you."

"I suppose so."

"Now you see the dilemma. He has gotten the idea that I was the one who invited you to the party and has endlessly nagged me well into this morning for information. He is doing it subtly and with discretion, but I know that he will not let it go. I agreed to meet with you and confirm that you politely decline any offer of meeting again."

"That's...well..."

"Because certainly a homeless girl would never even dream of anything like that."

"...Certainly. Of course. It's impossible for us to meet again, so why encourage him? I bet it's just a day's fascination. He will have forgotten me by next morning and gone back to devoting himself to his fiancee."

"That is the plan. I am so happy you agree with me. This could have gone much differently, but I knew you were smart. Here, change into these clothes and we can depart ways forever."

I slipped out of silk and into rough cotton. I rubbed dirt in my hair to hide its rainbow gleam, the gleam he seemed to have noticed. When everything was done and Rin headed for the gate, I asked, "Did you win the bet?"

She turned to look at me and smiled. "You did very well, Mayu Hidari. You have played all of your roles perfectly."

Rin soon vanished into the streets, back to her extravagant home, back to playing her role perfectly. I examined my surrounding and myself, how it looked like nothing had ever happened at all the night previous, and wondered if I would be able to play mine again.


	9. 140,631

I was a stray cat feeding other stray cats whenever I threw a homeless person a coin as I passed by. At least, that was what Gakupo said. I usually only gave away three as the maximum per day, but that morning walking to the bakery, my absent-mindedness cost us five. I hoped today's batch gave me enough to purchase the medicine.

Instead of Yuka inviting me in, when I knocked on the dreary back door, she joined me in the alley. The trust she had in her parents was overwhelming.

"How did it go? I heard there was an accident of some sort," Yuka said.

"It well fairly well, I think. Nobody recognized me except for Miku Hatsune, and she can keep a secret."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes! Listen, I got to make this quick since I'm late already to the corner."

"Spare no detail."

"I won't."

I kept my word, sort of. After what she said about staying away from the rest of the Kagamines, I omitted any mention of Len from the story, which was a great deal of it. She could sense there was something more, but did not inquire further.

"You had a nice time, then?" she asked.

"Yes."

"That's good to hear. You need a relaxed time every once and a while."

"I'm not sure 'relaxed' is the right word for last night, but thank you. I really must be heading to the corner now. I'm a bit low on money." She opened her mouth. I cut her off. "No, you may not lend me any."

Taking the basket of sweets she was cradling in her arms, I readjusted my hood and headed out. The air seemed colder today. The streets seemed emptier. The sky seemed farther away. For the first time in a while, my mind was free from the stress of buying an apartment, of living a happy life the way the world told me to live it. Maybe I should not have been content with my place in the world. Why should I have to be forbidden to see who I please? Why should he have to marry a woman he hardly knows? If society truly believed money did not equate to happiness, the affluent would have given up their riches long ago.

My corner seemed more pathetic today. I put on a smile and spoke in whatever accent the passersby seemed comfortable hearing, and they bought every last cake and cookie. I stared down at the pile of coins in my hand and felt nothing. If Gakupo were here right now, he would have yelled at me for such queries. If there was nothing to be done, then brooding would accomplish nothing.

I was halfway up the street when I noticed the piece of paper lying at the bottom of the wicker basket. "Strange," I mumbled under my breath. "Don't remember that being there before…" Picking it up, I could see it was a card about the size of my hand. Sturdy paper, rich person paper. Nothing was left to do but open it up. Inside was a single number.

 _5._

The ink was cyan, such a strange color to be writing with. The digit itself seemed to strike me and leave fear in its wake, but it was so unexplainable that I forced it down. I would ask Miku what she thought of it when I arrive at the clinic, but Yuka was the one I really wanted to interrogate. You would think that homeless people had plenty of time on their hands. A common myth.

The Hatsune Clinic seemed grimmer today. As I stood staring outside, I tried to put my finger on why, but could see nothing tangible. Maybe I drank too much wine the previous night. Maybe that was why I felt a shift in my view of this world and city I lived in. Tomorrow, I would be back to normal.

Before I could take a step closer to the practice's front doors, a force slammed into my shoulder and toppled my thin frame to the ground. A dozen little _clinks_ resounded around me as the rain of coins followed my collapse. Looking up, I could see the little boy running away, turning and mouthing a small "sorry," before driving on full speed ahead.

Cursing and hissing anyone who dared go near, I collected the coins and found that only one had rolled off into an arcane abyss. It wasn't until I brushed some of the dirt off my dress that I noticed the card with the _5_ on it had vanished as well.

The lobby was empty, save for Gumi playing with medicines strewed about, so out of place on the secretary desk. She seemed to have been in deep concentration, but broke out of her trance as soon as my footsteps echoed down the room.

"Are you here for the medication?" she asked. By the normal way she was acting, I could assume Miku did not tell her of my part in the events of last night. I was so glad my trust in her was well-placed.

"Yes. Is Miku in?"

"Yep. She's free right now, if you want to head in."

"Okay, thanks!" Maybe Gumi was the only ordinary person I knew.

Miku sat at her desk, hunched over a single paper, face contorted in thought. I had to call her name several times before she noticed I was there. "Mayu, hello."

"Hello. How's it going?"

"Not the best, to be honest. We'll discuss it after I get you your friend's medicine."

Once the serum was in my hands, she leaned against the walls and closed her eyes for a few seconds. "Please explain to me why you were at the party last night."

I proceeded carefully, wary of this serious side of Miku I had never witnessed before. "Rin Kagamine made a bet…" The story went on, once again missing the finer details of my conversation with Len. I was afraid if I spoke of it too much, I would start to remember it. If I started to remember it, then I might convince myself to do something stupid.

"I see. As long as nothing illegal was involved, I will keep your secret," Miku said.

"Thank you! Thank you so much."

"However, I would like to ask a favor. It is a hefty one, but you are the only one that can do this. You are my only friend Kaito doesn't know about."

"What is it?"

She sauntered over to her desk where the paper she was looking at laid. When she handed it to me, I could see that a single name loomed at the top along with an address. _Miku Taro_ and the address of their home.

"What is this?"

"A list of every named woman to my knowledge that my husband has had sexual relations with. I am not blind. I know that he is unfaithful. I ask that you find every other woman there has been in his life and write their information down for me."

"Why do you want this?" I asked.

"I want to talk to them."

"Just talk to them?"

"Yes, what else would I do?"

I sighed, peering down at the almost blank sheet of paper and imagining the dictionary-length book that could be filled with the names that Kaito Taro had sex with. Back up at Miku. Did I really have a choice?

"Okay. I'll do it. Only until this page is full, though. I hope you are prepared to face them." _The women, the sins of your husband._

"I am a grown woman. I can face anything."

I found Gumi with her ear pressed up against the door. She jumped and apologized. Too depleted of energy to be upset, I merely asked her if she had any information I could start out with. Gumi gave me a first name and an address. Whoever this _"Meiko"_ person was, I hoped she and Miku would resolve their differences, and if she was a member of the upper class, have a little information on the soon-to-be-married Len Kagamine.


	10. 140,630

The house whose address Gumi had given me was not a house at all. It was a building, one whose brick six floors was the tallest building in the city, save for the Kagamine's home. A place where people come to live but many leave dead. The hospital. I was wondering if Gumi had made a mistake, but if the years I had known her were a reliable testament, Gumi did not make mistakes. Never.

I watched the building from across the street. Hesitance. Foreboding. A cursive cyan five. A stray memory, floating in the wind, landing in my lap. I had been to this place one time before.

Eight years previous. A cold, cold night in one of the worst winters in Toragay history. A ten-year-old, knee-deep in snow, the night her golden eyes lost their shimmer. An older teenage boy beside her, purple hair glowing in the moonlight, one hand holding the child's, one still clutching the tarp he used to drag the girl's parent's dying bodies to the hospital doorstep. No beds were available, they said. Too many were dying from pneumonia. There was no time for the homeless, the leeches on society, the beggars.

The boy, battered and beaten himself, cried for the first and only time in the girl's presence. He promised to protect her and invited her into his home. Yes, it was only an abandoned tea garden, but it was a better home than she had ever remembered. He said he was so sorry for everything he did. She had only known him for one night, her parents were dead, but she forgave him anyway.

I shook it off. This past week had left me awfully nostalgic for too many inconceivable reasons. My clothes were cleaner than usual; I had gone out to a well outside the city for cleaning water that morning since the middle class shooed me away when I went to their urban ones. Gakupo told me I had gotten addicted to being clean, a dangerous addiction for those who live in the dirt.

The air inside the hospital was heavy with death. How men and women could work here, I had no idea. The woman at the front desk looked depressed and haggard, and seeing me strolling up to her did not improve her mood.

"Do you know where any Meiko staying here?" I asked, attempting to make forceful eye contact even when she looked me up and down.

"Do you have a last name?" she drawled.

"Um, no."

A sigh. "Well, I can't help you, then."

"Please, she's a friend."

Fierce grumbling followed by a shuffle of papers. She lifted her bifocals up to her eyes and searched.

"Room 7."

"Thank you so much."

I made my way down the lowly lit corridor. The hospital looked more like a hotel in here with hardwood flooring and paisley wallpaper. This would have been the nicest place I had ever step foot in if it wasn't for my invitation to the Kagamine residence. A lot of things would have been different if it wasn't for that night.

Room 7 stood before me like a portal to another dimension. A fleeting thought: _What am I doing here?_ If I was Miku, I would not want to know. Since divorce was impossible for a woman to enforce, I would just stay silent, remain cold, and wait for my husband to screw the wrong married woman. Wait for her partner to strangle him to death. If that never came, I would do it myself. I knocked and, after hearing no response, opened the door anyway.

The space was eerily silent. A woman with shortly cropped auburn hair sat at the bed, staring out the row of windows that let the sun pour in streams across the dull room. I could not see any bandages or any other sign of injury on the woman, only the paleness of her skin that clung to the bone. There were no others visitors besides myself.

"Hello, sorry to disturb you," I said quieter than I meant to. She did not so much as flinch. I spoke louder. "Hello, sorry to disturb you."

"Who is it?" she asked.

"I'm a friend of a friend."

"I have no friends. Not anymore."

"I'm sorry to hear that, really…"

The woman finally turned to face me, and I had to disguise the astonishment on my face as pleasantness. Her face, I had seen it one time before. At the party that night, lying helpless on the floor in her red dress, wine glass in hand, on the edge of her life. I almost did not recognize her. Though her complexion was that of a ghost, her eyes burned with fire and strength.

"To tell you the truth, I'm really here to ask you about Kaito Taro," I said, keeping my revelation to myself. Though I cleaned up a bit, I looked like an artisan at best.

"Kaito Taro, huh?" Her frown deepened and that fire in her eyes flared.

"Y-Yeah, do you know him?"

"Of course I know him. How could I forget the man who brought scandal raining down on my head?"

"Scandal?"

"Yes, he painted me out to be a slut, and my entire reputation was ruined. One time, one time I succumbed to his advances. Next thing I know, a rumor was spreading that I lost my sanctity to a married man, but of course, the name 'Kaito Taro' never entered the picture."

"So, you did indeed…sleep with him?" I was unsure at that point how to put it lightly.

She huffed and straightened her back, still filled with the pride Kaito had shattered. "I do not know who you are. I am sorry that I spoke in such a way to you. If you are a reporter, leave at once. If you are anything else, I do not know what you want with me."

"I'm sorry to hear about your struggles, truly, Meiko. I'm here as a favor to a friend, but that's it. Kaito Taro is a sick man. One day he'll be punished for what he has done. In this world or the next or both, we'll see."

"I hope it's both. I hope he's murdered and damned to eternal hell." Tears fell onto the white blankets.

"Goodbye."

She did not respond, only stared out the window again. After a minute, I left, feeling the secretary's eyes bore into my back as I floated through the lobby and out the doors. At home that night, I pulled out a specific piece of paper, a candle, and my precious inkwell. In my hardly used scrawl, I wrote under the name, _Miku Taro:_

 _Meiko Sakine…Address Unknown._

I blew out the flame of the candle and sat, back pressed against the wall, listening to Gakupo's ragged breathing as he slept, wondering if I was doing the right thing.


	11. 140,610

Yuka's father had grown ill, and her mother had been confined to his bedside for the past week. It seemed to be a normal cold; however, the disease had worn him down considerably. Apparently, this illness had been going around much of the city, infecting everyone from dukes to those of my caliber. I gave Yuka my sincerest sympathies but could not complain that I was able to go into the shop using the front entrance for the first time in my life.

My elbow rested on the front counter as I admired the interior of my friend's startlingly cute shop. Everything was covered in vine and rose designs from the wallpaper to the dainty chairs where customers could sit and drink a cup of coffee. Must have been nice to be one of them.

Yuka was standing on the other side of the counter, chopping up some green roots I could not recognize. Her eyes were downcast and exhausted by taking care of the store single-handedly for all this time. Weariness had taken hold of me recently as well. Nights were long and sleepless.

"What are you slicing? That stuff doesn't look very delectable," I mumbled, ripping my eyes off the décor and attempting to force some conversation to fill my thoughts.

"It goes into our herbal tea," she replied, voice lacking the usual spunk I was accustomed to. "I got to be careful, though. These roots look and smell very similar to another plant that's poisonous. Wouldn't want to mix them up."

"That would be bad business. Hey, I kept forgetting to ask you this," I began in a casual tone that did not match my stirred heart. "There was this card I found in the basket you gave last week. It had a cyan number 5 on it. Do you know what that is?"

She kept her head down. "Nope, no idea."

"Really? How do you think it got into the basket, then?"

"Don't ask me. I have no use for a cyan number 5."

"Okay, just wondering." A lofty silence passed. "There seems to be quite a lot of desserts behind you. What are they for?"

"I baked them all as practice for a big wedding we're catering that's coming up."

"Who's getting married?"

"Len Kagamine and Luka Megurine, of course. I guess I forgot to mention we were catering for some of it. It's going to be this huge ordeal, and I worry if Father doesn't get better, I'm going to be shorthanded."

"I see." _Len and Luka, huh? How could I forget._ "You know, maybe I could help. I don't know a thing about baking, but I can help deliver and set up."

She eyed me suspiciously. I couldn't believe my dear friend could not trust that I had no ulterior motive. I didn't, did I? "Okay, fine. You're wearing your hood the entire time, though."

"Deal."

I nonchalantly slid my hand across the counter and snagged a piece of that root Yuka was so adamantly cutting up. Face contorting in apprehension, I took a bite and immediately spit it out. "That is the sourest thing I have ever tasted," I groaned.

"Wait, _sour?_ " Yuka's eyes widened as she took a tiny nibble from the root. "Oh, my God. Mayu, spit that out right now."

"I already did."

"Here, gargle this water and spit it out."

"What?"

 _"Just do it!"_

"Okay!" I grabbed the tin cup she was offering and did what I was told. Yuka went through the same motions before gathering all the roots from the table and throwing them in the barrel where all the food waste went.

"I'm so stupid. I must have bought the wrong roots at the shop," she said.

"Wait, those were the _poisonous_ roots you were talking about?" I asked.

"Apparently so."

"You are really trying to kill me now, aren't you?"

"I would never do that, but if I did you wouldn't be here to reprimand me about it."

"I don't doubt that. As compensation for almost condemning me to an early death, I'm in need of some information."

"Really? You've never taken an interest in my gossip before," Yuka said.

"I never needed to before."

"This isn't about the Kagamines again, is it?"

"No, it's about Kaito Taro."

"That name sickens me to my stomach."

"Mine, too. Especially now." I had added three more names to Miku's list. Two were married and one was a woman with my housemate's unseemly occupation. I filled my days with investigating these women, hoping to keep my mind from straying too far into forbidden territory. All I could think about was his face and my new recurring nightmare. A cruel queen whose servant was her twin brother fell in love with a prince. A guillotine loomed in the distance.

"What do you want to know about him?"

"His lovers. How many, what are their names, and where can I find them?"

"That's a long list. Why on earth would you want to know that?"

"I made a promise. Or maybe I was blackmailed. It doesn't matter, I just need to know."

She sighed a long and tired sigh and looked into my eyes with melancholy and concern. "I just don't know what goes through your head these days, Mayu."

I shot her a smile I hoped didn't look too insincere. "I don't know myself. Please, I know you must know something."

Yuka held my gaze for a while. "I do."

My parchment was on the counter in an instance. Once she handed me an inkwell and pen, she began listing names and addresses like she was a talking encyclopedia of every person in the city.

The next day I went over to the Hatsune Clinic and showed Miku what I had gathered so far, assuring her I would verify the abundance of names I received from my "anonymous source" as soon as possible. She nodded vaguely, handed me Gakupo's medicine, and politely asked me to leave. Her skin was paler than I remembered, her eyes were duller. Gumi was the same as always, though it was a bit peculiar how she was mincing green roots on her desk. I asked what they were. She said I would have never heard of them. That night I had the nightmare. The guillotine was slowly descending from the horizon toward the palace steps.


	12. 140,572

The doctors around the city announced that we were being assaulted by a fierce epidemic. This was devastating news to those living in comfort, but ask anybody living on the streets and they would have told you that a week ago, when the bodies began appearing in the alleyways. Yuka's father passed away the day after she gave me the names. Melancholy hit her hard and left her fast. She did not want to talk about it, but she did give me one more woman that had allegedly had relations with Kaito Taro.

I had been having no luck with these names. Almost every woman I sought out was either mourning from a loss thanks to the epidemic or curtly adamant on denying my allegations. A few of them were dead before or after I met them, including the hospitalized Meiko.

That new name given to me by Yuka had been haunting me since I received it one day ago. I hadn't the courage to face her at first, but now that the cruel emptiness of my life had eaten away the majority of my days and nights, I knew that facing this woman would not kill me before the epidemic did.

The backdoor of the Kagamine's palace was just ahead. A multitude of servants were up and about at this late morning hour, hauling canvas bags full of food, harnessing disgruntled horses, sneaking in a smoke before they were dragged to their next duty. All these people working and serving one family and their guests, it was strange. However, I did not come here to be astonished. My eyes scanned the crowd until they fell upon the lady's maid with the petite frame and the pink glittering hair I had been acquainted with before. She was leaning against a wall and chatting fervently to a maid girl who was assumedly her friend. I slowly crept out of the shadows.

Gakupo told me once that if I strode confidently then no one would notice I was not supposed to be there. The old moron was wrong. As I made my way toward Teto, the other servants of the household grew quiet. They tended to pair up, exchanging a whisper or two. The hierarchy among the bottommost class seemed so trivial to me, but even footmen and maids had their pride.

When Teto laid eyes upon my familiar form, her body grew rigid as she marched straight for me, grabbed my arm, and pulled me to the door and into the servant's hall. Her face was red with fury and sharp words escaped her like the blade of a knife.

"What has gone through your incompetent head, Hidari? Showing up here in broad daylight—showing up here at all! My lady was magnanimous enough to clean you up and take you to a ball, and you repay her with threatening her reputation? Why on God's green Earth are you here?"

"I have to talk to Luka Megurine about something personal," I answered.

" _Countess_ Megurine, you mean? What personal matters, pray tell, do you have with her?"

"I can't say. It's _personal._ "

"If this is about Master Len, I suggest you stop right now and walk away before you get yourself into trouble."

"It's not about Len!" I snapped. "It's not like I want to be here, but a friend of mine asked a favor of me and I am not in the position to refuse. Countess Megurine has been a part of something not so flattering, and if you don't want that to get out, I suggest you lead me to wherever she is."

"Know your place, Hidari!" Teto spoke as if the wind was knocked out of her. "However…is it really a scandal?"

"A horrid one. I don't think she could survive it. Another woman fell into the same trap, and she was left ruined. She died alone in a hospital just the other day."

She let out a shaky breath. "I cannot allow my Lady's family to get involved in this. If I do bring you to her, do you promise to cleanse it from your mind and never speak of it again?"

"I promise."

"Does anyone else know of this?"

"Only one. Eventually, two. They will never talk."

"So be it. Come with me and cover that dreadfully filthy hair up with your hood. Your face is surprisingly clean. I wish you were not wearing those rags, but there is nothing to be done. Follow."

I tailed Teto as she snuck me through endless halls and rooms. Even though the number of people in the building was considerably less than the night of the party, servants and guests alike still prowled around the floors like wolves. I was the lamb, and Teto was the unenthusiastic shepherd.

Luka's room was adjacent to Rin's. When we made it to the intimidating doors, Teto whispered, "You have fifteen minutes at the maximum. I might be late coming back up here to smuggle you back out."

"Thank you. I'll keep my word," I said.

"I suspect you will. Remember that I know where you live." She turned and strode away without another word.

I straightened my spine, pulled back my shoulders, and knocked on the mahogany wood door before me. The affronted voice of a woman told me to come in. Make it quick, she said.

Her room was painted with the same extravagance as the rest of the house, but with a little extra pink strewn about. I ignored it all with the demeanor of someone who had seen a dozen castles before or just plain didn't care. I don't think I did when it came down to it. What I did care about was the Countess, laying out on pink leather, camel back sofa, facing me with a critical gaze which unflinchingly scanned my entire being. She did not speak.

"Sorry to barge in on you, Countess," I told her.

"If you were truly sorry, you would get on with it and tell me your name and business here, little girl."

I caught my tongue before it could snap back. "My name is of no importance. I am here to ask you about a man named Kaito Taro."

"How did you get in here?"

"I was let in like anyone else. Do you know a Kaito Taro?"

"We are the briefest of acquaintances."

"Really? I have a source who says otherwise."

"What are you insinuating?"

"I insinuate nothing. I just look at the sources and the evidence." I did not know why, but looking at this woman sucked the emotions right out of me and replaced them with a coldness rivaled by the dead. She is the one who was going to marry Len and yet she is lustful enough to fall into an affair with a married man! It was stupid and selfish and possibly detrimental to the reputation of not only her but the Kagamines as well. Not that I felt any duty toward the Kagamine family. Oh, this was all too weird. All these people, why did they draw out of me a well of emotion or lack thereof like they have influenced me all my life? I had felt this several times before, however, when I first met Gakupo, Miku, and Gumi. Maybe even Yuka.

"There is no evidence of anything."

"Are you positive?"

"For God's sake, stop speaking so dispassionately. You are obviously not a police officer. You have no right to interrogate me!"

"I have evidence that you and Kaito Taro have been in a promiscuous relationship. There is no use denying it."

"Pro- _Promiscuous!_ How dare you—!"

" _Luka Megurine!_ Do not try my patience. I have information I know you would not want to be let out. If I were you, I would not waste my time denying it."

Her face contorted in rage, Luka halfway stood up before despair seemed to have taken hold of her, and she dropped back down.

"It was only one time," she said. "Just once. Is that so bad? It's bad enough I have to be chained to that awkward imbecile Len for the rest of my life. I just wanted a little fun before there was no turning back. Will you vilify me for that?"

"I'm not going to vilify you. I just wanted to hear you say it. Thank you for your time."

"Wait! Who else knows?" she pleaded.

"A baker and a wife falling apart at the seams from the thought that her husband doesn't love her. Have a nice wedding. Goodbye."

Out in the hall, Teto was waiting for me. With every turn we made, I always expected to see Len walking down the hallway. He never was.


	13. 140,328

The days you want to last the longest always end up vanishing away in the blink of an eye. Filling them with routine doesn't help. Becoming absorbed in anything from the menial to the seemingly pivotal made no difference. There was a hole somewhere in my person, but I could not seem to locate it even as it grew larger and larger.

"You have the look again," Gakupo told me one bleak and cloud-covered morning.

"If 'that look' is fabulous, then I agree." My voice held no amusement.

"You are starting to sound like me, which is very worrying. I hope you are not pushing myself."

"Worry all you want, old man. I got to leave early today." I stood from the mattress and began brushing my dirt-caked hair.

"I wish you would tell me what's wrong. You seem to just be slipping farther and farther away."

"Maybe I've been starting to understand what you always say about our position in this world and how hopelessly impossible it is to do anything about it."

"Don't say that. How many days until we have enough money for the flat?"

"I've lost track."

He was silent after that, and that inconceivable guilt that accompanied my melancholy crept in again. I couldn't help but stay in this half-asleep state of mind. When you get used to the idea that your life might not end like your parents' did, reality crashing in is all the more unbearable. Helping Miku felt just wrong now, but I did as she told anyway. Gathering names. Conducting trivial interviews that all began to blend together into the evident fact that there are disgusting people in this world. Not today, though. Today was different.

"Is this about the wedding?" Gakupo asked as I was heading for the gate.

"I don't know. Probably." I did not tell him I was going with Yuka to help set up for it that day. This night was the big event. Maybe I would snap out of it when this whole thing is over with.

A dead man was outside Yuka's door. He must have been homeless, crawling his way to the sweet smell of pastries that wafted from her shop and just sat there to die. Her mouth was wide open and his eyes were rolled back into his skull. Blood ran down his jaw and his clothes until it pooled on the ground. Someone would come to remove him eventually.

Yuka didn't pay the corpse much mind as she loaded up a carriage with her breads, cakes, and other delicacies. She waved me over, and I began lifting the crates and baskets with her. How she managed to make all this was a mystery to me. There was enough food to feed the entire city.

"Is your mother coming to help as well?" I asked as we hopped aboard the carriage. Lack of space prompted us to sit on the crates like a couple of vagrants hitching a ride to a new land. Truthfully, I had never ridden in a carriage before. A tiny bit of joy sparked in the darkness.

"No, she…has taken ill," Yuka replied.

That joy flickered and faded. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Let's just get the work done and over with."

I felt dizzy at every rock, dip, and turn in the road. The nausea distracted me for most of the way to the center of the city where I found myself facing the Kagamine residence once again. Maybe I was torturing myself, but some torture I can't stay away from.

White flowers ornamented every window, door, and lamppost on the property. The square around the building was even more crowded than usual, and our driver commented how beautiful it looked at least seven times before dropping us off at the back gate. The day would never come when I could walk through the front doors like a real person. The thought placed lead in my arms, and unloading the crates was all the more difficult.

Some strong men helped carry in the goods. I used the crate I was hauling to cover my face and avoid any unnecessary confrontations from Teto, but she was nowhere to be seen. All the other servants were too frantic with their preparations that they couldn't tell the difference between me and the queen herself.

A thin sheen of sweat had appeared on my face by the time we made it to a great hall I had never yet seen. People with all sorts of purposes hustled around the white lace and pink satin to make sure this wedding was perfect. Some loud-mouthed woman was screeching for the caterers to start setting up. Yuka and I worked efficiently and silently for a very long time.

"Did you want to come with me because of Len Kagamine?" she asked suddenly as we cut and arranged the loaves of bread.

"No, what do I have to do with Len Kagamine?" I answered.

"I asked Gakupo. He told me everything."

No words for a while. "You think I'm foolish."

"Yes, but I'm still sorry."

"Don't be. I'll be over it soon enough, as soon as this God-forsaken wedding is over. I don't even know why I felt so drawn to him. Nothing makes much sense anymore."

"I really am terribly sorry. Remember that, please."

The room around us became slightly quieter. Our hands stopped moving as we scanned the room for any source of the solemnity. My eyes landed on the entrance to the hall, where Len Kagamine stood with who would seem to be his mother, observing the space with a reserved interest, but the sunshine of his features which I had seen the night of the party was gone. I could sense Yuka tensing behind me.

"I think I should go," I whispered to her. My sight was still set on him. "This is too painful."

Before she could interject, I began walking briskly away. My heart was beating to quickly I could feel it through the blood in my veins. Len had started walking as well, uncomfortably close to my path of movement. I made sure to keep my head down and shielded by my hood as we passed. I almost relaxed before a large man bumped into me and nearly sent me face-first onto the marble.

"Oh, I'm sorry miss! You're just so small, I couldn't even see you!" his voice boomed, echoing off the walls of the room and sending the people into another silence. I felt their eyes.

Shaking my head and making forgiving hand motions, I attempted to pacify the situation without my voice being heard.

"What's your name, young lady? Are you a mute?" His words were harsh, but his tone was jubilant.

"No, I'm sorry, sir. My name is Mayu, and I really have to be going now," I whispered.

"Huh? Mayu? Speak louder, my hearing's been failing me for years!"

"GOOD DAY, SIR!" I shouted and booked it out of there. Sneaking a glance behind me, I saw Len watching with a perplexed expression, then realization. No, he couldn't have recognized my voice. We had spoken so long ago and for such a short period of time. I asked myself if I would recognize his voice if I heard it even in the most impossible of places. Yes, I believed I would.

He started running toward me. I ran faster. Out the door, through the halls. He called my name, the name I foolishly gave that old man to repeat to the world. Down stairs, more doors, into the streets, into the crowd, he called my name, but still, I ran faster.

That night the word came out that Luka Megurine had died an hour before the wedding was supposed to take place. I cried for her, but I also cried for me and this whole damn hopeless situation, and this whole damn dying city and my whole damn life.


	14. 139,654

Now the city was beginning to panic.

Not only had hundreds of its citizens dropped dead by some epidemic unknown to science, but now its unrelenting claw had snatched away their beloved soon-to-be duchess. The chaos had even reached the countryside and suburban towns which surrounded the city who often visited us whether it be for a play or a more experienced doctor's visit. However, Toragay was the largest city in the world save for the capital of the country, and hundreds out of hundreds of thousands did not disturb the minds cocky enough to believe they were out of harm's way. For us homeless people who were always the first to die when diseases passed through, we expected every night's sleep to be our last. Sometimes I wished for it to be so, for the guillotine approached ever closer to the open gates.

I was utterly exhausted two days after Luka's death. When I told Gakupo about the dead bride as well as my and Len's encounter, he took that day's generous earnings and bought us a bottle of cheap wine. He always kept me away from alcohol, but considering the "everyday could be our last" mentality was setting in, he made an exception. Though, now I understood why he did not recommend the liquid poison. For the first time in a while, something hurt more than my heart, my head.

The walk to Yuka's bakery felt arduously long. I attempted to whip myself into a better mood as I approached the front door since her mother had finally passed the previous day. Just like how she responded to the death of her father, she continued business as usual. Worriedly, I watched her through the window of her shop, how unnaturally natural she was with the man she was helping. That man...Strange how he showed up so early, strange how his hair was the exact same as Len's. And his stature…and his high-end clothes…oh no.

Len was saying something, and Yuka looked at him as if he was from another planet. Something he said just made her straighten her back, and her eyes involuntarily glanced at me through the window. Len followed her gaze. As soon as his eyes hit me, fear struck me into a frozen state. Recognition dawned upon his face and he made for the door. We were running once again.

 _Damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN!_ My experience in chase was greater, but malnutrition had never left me since the day I was born. I grew winded by the second city block. _Damn him!_ Why was this boy so persistent? He had seen me as I was, without make-up, without proper dress or even water to clean my face. Yet, he was right behind me, ignorantly tailing a girl who he met one time under false pretenses at a party for his engagement to his dead fiancée. I longed to see him so much, but when it came down to it, I could not confront Len as I was. A barricade had been built slowly and carefully around my heart since the first time everyone was taken away from me, and somebody with no knowledge of my suffering could not just waltz in and tear it down in a night.

My legs began shaking from exhaustion. One glance behind me showed Len Kagamine, breathing heavily, almost at my heels.

"Get away from me!" I yelled right before he, as gingerly as possible, grabbed my bony elbow and stopped me in my tracks.

"Mayu! Your name is Mayu, right?" Len asked, turning me around to face him. This was the first time I had really taken a look at him since all those weeks ago, and I hated that the enchantment of his features had yet to wear off. Something was so natural about his smile, something genuine about his expectant eyes, something familiar and comfortable about his voice. The normal Mayu Hidari had flown away as soon as I saw him, leaving merely a fumbling being of anxiety and forbidden words which wanted to escape me. I caught them quickly.

"That is my name. Who are you?" I replied dumbly.

"I…You…You were at the party."

"A-Ah, yes. Now I remember," I squeaked. "About that, um, your sister thought it would be fun to dress me up and parade me around like a doll to win a bet with your deceased fiancée. I'm sorry to hear of that, by the way. I also apologize for pretending to be some rich heiress of wherever. As you can see, I'm just about equivalent to dirt, so I'll be on my way now."

"Wait! Um, that night…you didn't…I don't know."

"What are you speaking of, m'lord?" I asked.

"Please, don't call me that. You…You haven't thought of our meeting much over the past weeks?"

"Well, I will never have another night like that in my life. Of course I've thought of it, but if you are approaching me about anything else, as I suspect you are, I don't know what to tell you."

"I see." He loosened his hold on me enough so I could book it out of there, but I did not move. The dejected look on his face brought indescribable sadness upon me, and all the formal and cold words I had spoken to him felt like poison on my lips.

People were starting to come out of their dens and into the morning to start their day. If anyone should see the son of the duke fraternizing with someone like me, both our heads would be on the line. However, we couldn't part ways like this. I thought we could have, but no. I took his arm and pulled him into a dim, empty alleyway. Before he could speak, I said, "Len, I'm not going to lie and say I don't understand how you feel. The problem is that we live in two different cities, two different worlds. Nothing can come of you seeking me out. This will only lead to heartbreak and disgrace. If you say a word about love, I must remind you that we don't know each other. We had one conversation at one party while you were engaged. Nothing more."

"You really don't despise me?"

"Of course not, but you really must be going now before someone walks through here."

"You say that we don't know each other, okay. What if I got to know you? Would you let me be around you, then?"

I sighed in frustration. "You aren't hearing me! We are impossible! Why prolong our misery?"

"I won't leave until you agree to let me get to know you."

"I thought you were the sheepish twin."

"Please?"

"I can't believe the duke's son is saying 'please' to a homeless peasant."

"Pleeeease?" The idiot was smiling and batting his eyes like a puppy.

"Fine, if you want to get to know me, go ahead. By the time you're done, you'll want to be rid of me forever. Follow."

As he fervently denied my last claim, I began walking out of the alley and along the streets I knew so well. Once he saw my home, my lifestyle, and my winning personality, maybe my heart would stop beating so excessively.


	15. 135,712

Gakupo always told me I had an unforgiving temper, and, when in the right mood, could make a grown man cower with my venomous words alone. Taking his observation to heart, I tried my best to deter the persistent and moronic Len from wanting anything to do with me by shuffling through the archives of my mind for the most curt and sarcastic insults in the repertoire.

"Take off that garish coat. You look like a circus clown's understudy," I said as we wove carefully through the alleys toward my home.

Immediately after I spoke, I turned a wary eye on the boy to see the aghast reaction that never came. Instead, he nodded, gingerly sliding the extravagant gold-thread jacket off his back and throwing it onto the nearest trash heap that lined the streets.

"You didn't have to do that," I mumbled guiltily.

"I have too much clothing anyway," he replied in that same cheerful tone that he first greeted me with. "Do you know these streets well?"

"I could navigate them blindfolded. Do you get lost in that castle of yours?"

"Only when I was a child, and Rin always found me in the end."

"I have someone like that I suppose. You will meet him shortly. Be warned—he does not take to strangers very well."

He seemed to have choked on something when I said " _him."_ An immensely satisfying result. If my lifestyle did not disconcert him, the most disconcerting man on God's green Earth would be my salvation. When we at last found ourselves in front of the gate to my hovel, Len observed it and its surroundings with a not-a- all pitying or distasteful curiosity, but a genuine one like he was perusing the exterior of a lavish apartment building rather than a dilapidated tea garden in the slums of the city.

"The Snake and the Rabbit?" he asked eventually. The noise caused an entity within the walls shift about.

"Yes, that's what people call us around here. I'm the Rabbit, and the Snake…well, you'll see."

I knocked on a bar and, upon receiving no answer, spout curses under my breath as I maneuvered the wooden plank through the gaps with much difficulty. Len offered to help, but I waved him off right before I managed to free the gate from the board's clutches. It screeched like a banshee as it opened.

Ever so cautiously, I crept inside with Len in tow. I heard the bastard moving around, and hiding in our small and plain home was not an option. Nowhere to run, old man. Nowhere.

"Is everything alright?" Len asked from behind me as I threw myself into the open space and scanned the area for a very large, very filthy-looking man, but no one was there.

"Hmm," I calculated. "I suppose it is. My imagination must have conjured up the noise I heard earlier—"

Like a devil's snake, Gakupo slithered out from _under_ the mattress and absorbed me in a hug from behind. I let out surprised scream, and Len was so alarmed I thought he was going to faint where he stood.

Extending my arms and making fierce motions to calm him down, I said, "It's okay. It's just Gakupo. _The Snake._ "

"The Snake? Ah, yes, the Snake," Len squeaked. "Sorry, I was just startled. N-Nice to meet you." He offered his hand, but Gakupo merely tightened his hold on me. "U-Um, what's your relation to Mayu?"

A maniacal smile spread across his face. "Len Kagamine, is it? I thought you would see quite plainly that we're _lovers._ "

A flood of crimson, more from fury than embarrassment, spread across my cheeks. Len was unsurprisingly aghast. In order to erase that statement from the fabric of the universe, I yelled, "YOU _WISH,_ OLD MAN!" and elbowed him hard in the face.

Finally releasing me, he took a step back and sulked. "I was only trying to stir some jealousy in the boy. He hardly seems the passionate type."

"If he wasn't passionate, he would have left me alone a long time ago," I replied.

"Hm, I see." Gakupo sauntered up to Len and observed him quite bluntly from top to bottom. Len shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "You couldn't have liked someone a bit taller?"

"Okay, that's enough of you. Stand in the corner and think about what your next words will be to our guest."

He grumbled, walking over to the corner with a stubborn pout. Taking a deep breath, I started over. "Len, welcome to our home."

He managed a smile. "Thank you."

I gave him the grand tour of the place. The mattress, the table, the two chairs, the moping Gakupo in his natural habitat, the little pile of trinkets we had accumulated over the years, and finally, the jar of savings that would liberate us from our homelessness. My speech was exaggerated and grandiose during the whole short excursion, but inside was a whirlpool of embarrassment and yet defiant pride that made me less pathetic. Being short, I was sure, was not the only thing that bothered Gakupo about him.

"You've saved all this for a flat?" Len was saying. "That's fantastic. How do you two get the money?"

Now was the time my roommate thought was best to emerge from his time-out. "It's a family business!" he exclaimed. "I come from a legacy, and was kind enough to pass on that legacy to my little sister, Mayu, over there. Though not connected by blood, I cannot keep my passion to myself."

"Really? What is it you do?"

"Don't you dare say another word!" I interjected, pointing an accusing finger at that damned snake. "I've been trying to make him quit his _passion_ for years, and I will tell Len about it at a later time."

Gakupo huffed. "Fine. Be on your way, then, but before you go, I need a private word with your little boyfriend over there."

"Not my—whatever, go ahead."

Len was less-than-kindly pulled to the other side of the garden. They faced away from me, Gakupo harshly whispering something I could only imagine in my nightmares into Len's ear. When they separated, a grave expression took over Len's features for only a moment before he forced a cheery smile my direction. For the very first time, I feared this plague decimating this city and the towns around it. I did not want to die now that there was finally something to live for. Though the days felt as dark as night, twilight had yet to come.


	16. The Rabbit

We walked at a languid pace down the street, Len shielding his features with the cloak I lent him and me scanning all the faces flooded around me to make sure no one hostile toward the Snake and the Rabbit would approach us. The sun was not even at its precipice in the sky, but I could tell by the heaviness of Len's stride and sullenness of his words that he would have to go soon. Somewhere in the recesses of my soul, I was screaming for him not to go. Take me away to a place far from here! Be like the prince Gakupo always wanted for me! Instead, I asked a simple question, one that was staring at us all day.

"What are you planning to do now?" The small talk we had been making this whole walk had taken an abrupt turn. His steps faltered. "It seems you have gotten to know me a little better, but what now? What was the point of this?"

His face was hidden from me behind that filthy hood. It bothered me, not being able to see his smile or lack thereof. "I have to go back to my home pretty soon," he said quietly.

"Avoiding the question is useless."

He nodded. Gently taking my hand, he led me into another alley, taking a page from my book, and I put up no resistance. Hood down, I could see that the smile had indeed faded away. "Can I tell you the truth?"

"Preferably."

"I love you."

Another image: a boy with golden hair retreating down a dirt road in a land I had never seen before. His smile was so wide, but tear tracks ran down his face.

"I—" I began.

"I know it's stupid, so stupid. At first I would have done anything to change it, but I can't. I feel like we've known each other all our lives. I'm sorry I couldn't find you until now. This city is dying, Mayu. If this epidemic stays alive, barriers are bound to be broken. No one would care if I loved a duchess, a homeless girl, or a horse!"

My cheeks were wet, and I could hear the drops hitting the ground. "What if the epidemic gets one of us? If Luka isn't safe, how can someone like me be? All the people of the streets are dying or already dead. It's only a matter of time."

"We won't die."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I have to be."

"What if the epidemic stops tomorrow? The city recuperates and everything is back to normal?"

"We can run away."

"What if I don't love you?"

"Do you?" His voice was very quiet all of a sudden, scared.

That was a good question. Did I? No, I couldn't. It was too ridiculous, all of this was too ridiculous to be real. I wasn't Cinderella. I was just Mayu. Mayu Hidari, the Rabbit, the Wayward, the girl on the corner selling stale cakes, the girl with accents and a stubborn search for impossible knowledge, the girl with that emptiness in her heart for as long as she could remember, the girl waiting at the foot of the guillotine but whose fate lied elsewhere. This…This was not me. These words I was about to speak were not me. However, pretending to be someone else might not be such a bad idea.

"I think so," I whispered.

That was all that truly mattered and all that needed to be said. Yes, I loved Len, and if this damn epidemic was to spare us, maybe I would not be the Rabbit any longer.

I was born to two kind but unfortunate people. My actual birthplace was unknown to me, some alley somewhere, but what I did know was I did not have a home. Mother and Father always told me they would get me one someday, and I believed them. I still believed them, years later when I could call myself a woman. Toragay had been a city of death once before in my lifetime, that night Gakupo and I met, that night my parents died.

There I was, ten years old, education consisting of Mother's makeshift lessons, friends consisting of a rabbit that liked to scavenge in the alley we slept in. The sun was setting, and my parents were growing weary. They were practically sprinting through the streets, Father pulling painfully on my arm. Nights were dangerous back then. Never stay out in the open at night, especially if you have enemies. Enemies was something we did not lack.

"We're gonna make it," Father whispered to us. Mother nodded. I held in my tears.

"It's okay, honey." Mother had noticed my distress. Her face was so convincing. She was so beautiful, but I did not inherit her features, or Father's. It was like I was dropped down in this city by a magician's hand, rather than by any natural means. However foreign I looked to them, they loved me dearly. "It's okay. What's the word you learned today?"

"R-R-Remedy," I forced out.

"Good, dear. Do you know what it means yet?"

I shook my head.

"Okay, well, remedy is like—"

"Hidari!" a sharp voice echoed against the buildings around us. All three of us halted in front of the silhouetted man, sauntering out of a nearby shop. "How's it going, my friend?"

"Fine," Father answered shortly. "We have no business with you. Excuse us as we pass." He tried to look so tough in those rags of his.

"But, we have business with you, you see, my friend." Seven other shadows came out of that shop and stood all in a line before us. The only figure I could distinguish the features of was to the far left. His long purple hair seemed almost comical to me, but his face was so phlegmatic. "I'm not sure if you remember. It was a long time ago, but you stole from me, my friend. Now, why would you steal from me?"

"You stole from us first. My family would have starved if I didn't get that money back," Father replied. His grip on my hand grew tighter.

They stared at each other for a very long time. Before I could bring myself to even blink, the leader had launched himself forward toward Father. Three others followed suit. Mother had grabbed my arm and pulled me away. She was beginning to run away but then turning back to look at her husband over and over again. We were losing time. Why couldn't she make a decision?

Three of the remaining shadows began inching toward us with extended arms. They had no weapons but those giants could snap a ten-year-old girl's spine in less than a second. I never knew such fear.

One shadow remained where he stood, that purple-haired man. His features now illuminated by the growing moonlight seemed hesitant, almost afraid. A shadow walking toward us yelled back to him, "Gakupo, get your ass over here! I don't care if you don't want to fuck them, but you have to do your part." He did not budge.

"It's okay, Mayu. You're going to be okay," Mother was whispering to me. Something in her hand glinted. Thank God, a knife! She had a knife!

Meanwhile, Father was rolling around on the ground with his attackers. He was strong, but four against one is just pitiful. It wasn't long before the leader was on top of Father, slamming his fist into his face over and over and over again. Soon the struggling stopped, and that was how my father died.

"You're going to run, now," Mother told me. "Run to our alley, gather the things, and find a new home."

"Where will I meet you two?" I saw Father's demise, but I couldn't believe it. No, he wasn't dead. He was just knocked out, sleeping peacefully.

"I'll find you, honey. Now, go!"

I went. My thin legs threatened to buckle beneath me. It was no use. A shadow had tackled me down within seconds, breaking at least one of my fragile ribs. I kicked and screamed and bit him, calling for my mother without any response. Within our struggle, I caught a glimpse of the horror that was behind me. Mother's knife on the ground, a stagnant shadow on the ground, black liquid on the ground as it poured out of the shadow's throat. Now, my mother on the ground, a shadow with the knife over her. I couldn't look. That was how my mother died.

Screaming, Mothers? No, a man's. Many men's. The man holding me down looked over his shoulder in terror.

"Gakupo! Gakupo, what are you doing?!" he yelled, pushing himself off me and to his feet.  
It took all my energy to lift my head off the dirt and see what was going on. Seven bodies, two were my parents', five were shadows, and in the middle of it all was that purple-haired man, a traitor, with a bloodied dagger shaking in his hand. My assailant was the last to run at him. Now there were eight.

With a distant look in his eyes, the purple-haired man staggered toward me. I tried to stand and escape, but the pain in my chest was too much to bear. Closing my eyes, I braced myself. Soon I would be with Mother and Father again. However, no finishing blow came. When I dared to look, that man—Gakupo, was that his name? —towered above me, hand outstretched to help me up. I felt like I had seen him somewhere before, but I couldn't recall where. Mother and Father were dead or were about to die. There really wasn't any other option.

I took his hand, and that was when we became the Snake and the Rabbit.


	17. 101,130

Four days had passed since Len and I last parted ways. Yes, it was all jolly well and good that we loved each other; however, then was not the time to do anything drastic just yet. He had a city and I had a Gakupo to help take care of. Hefty tasks for the both of us. Though, four days, felt like four years. Every night I hoped to dream of happier days with him, but all I dreamed of was that horrid guillotine. Every morning I hoped that it would be my last waking up in this cold tea garden, but every day passed into every night, when I dreamed of the guillotine again. An endless cycle, it seemed. Despite this, an impregnable happiness took over me sometimes, the promise of a new future. There _was_ some explaining to do when it came to Yuka, though.

Standing in the dawn's gray light, Miku stared at the passing pedestrians, much fewer than there were before. I was surprised to see her there in front of her father's clinic rather than inside, locked away like the rest of the city. Had she been that thin before? I understood. The unceasing death brought all of us to our darkest hours. Doctors, unofficial or not, had it the worst, I was sure.

"Miku!" I called out to her as I made my way down the pavement.

She turned to me immediately, like a fearful animal waiting to be consumed by its predator. "Oh, Mayu! It's so good to see you again. I was beginning to worry it had gotten to you, too."

"Not yet. I'm sorry I haven't been coming by. You gave me enough of Gakupo's medication to last a while, but I should have visited more, as a friend."

"No problem. How are you? Here, let's walk and talk. Most my days and nights have been spent here, and it's starting to drive me a bit insane."

We laughed at that, mine was warm, hers was merely cordial, and began making our way down the street as we continued our conversation. This dreary sky could make even her beautiful cyan locks look eerie and dull.

"I'm doing well, better at least," I answered her earlier question. "Even with all this going on, I think I might have finally found my chance at happiness."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes. The probability is so slim, nearly nonexistent, but it's still there. That fact alone is my reason to wake up in the morning."

"We all need one of those."

"I also have to apologize for stopping my inquisitions into your problem." She stiffened slightly at that. "My mind was not where it should have been for a while. I could hardly think straight."

"No, that's alright. I've stopped my inquiries, too. There are more important matters at hand. All the doctors in the city are dead, and my father passed away just last night. It seems I'm all Toragay's got left."

"I'm so sorry to hear about your loss."

"It was bound to happen at some point." Emotionless. Her words lacked any sense of sorrow, but it was not quite like Yuka's evasiveness. Yuka seemed sullen. Miku seemed unempathetic. I was no expert in matters of the heart. It must have been my imagination.

"But, _all_ the other doctors? Even the small-town physicians?"

"Yes, every single one. I feel sorry for their families whom I know personally. Well, we've all lost someone."

"I'm lucky that I don't know a lot of people to lose."

"There is always a great number of people to lose, Mayu," she said.

"Of course."

Miku let out a tired sigh. We had walked all away around the block and were back at the entrance to the clinic. "I must be going back in, now. There is a lot of research to be done about this epidemic. Here's Gakupo's medication." She handed me a vial.

"Thank you." I passed the glass bottle in between my hands. Something felt off about it.

"No payment required. Also, this is for you." She dug into her satchel and handed me another vial, though this one was smaller and was brimming with a green liquid I had never seen before. "Free of charge as well. Sleep medicine. Gumi and I have been making it and giving it away to anyone who'll take it. Everyone is in need of more sleep nowadays."

"Does it prevent dreams?"

"Kaito tells me it does. He drinks some every night before he goes to sleep."

"Wow, thanks. You really are carrying this city on your shoulders, Miku."

"It's my pleasure. Now, I must leave you. Sweet dreams, or rather lack thereof, my friend."

We laughed again and departed ways.

Two snakes were waiting for me back at home. One was that old man, humming some song I had never heard before and prancing about the garden like it was Christmas morning. The other was a kreuzotter vipers sprawled out in front of the gate. I heaved a rock off the ground nearby and had lifted above my head to crush the damn thing when I realized it was already dead. Good.

I knocked on the gate, and Gakupo, giddy as a school boy, skipped up and let me in. Examining him up and down, I finally got it.

"That client got you a bath again, didn't he?" I gawked.

"You know it!" he broke his song and winked. "But, you don't get to complain. You had a night of cleanliness and champagne and handsome princes. All I got was bath salts."

"Fair enough. Is there any other reason why you're so cheerful?"

"It's just a good day to be alive. Plus…" he pulled out a bulky leather pouch from his jacket. "When the world is ending, you put the strangest people in your will."

 _"What is that?"_

He laughed maniacally. "Another one of my clients dropped dead yesterday, and guess who was a beneficiary?"

"Your clients are real nutcases."

"Yes they are!" Gakupo strutted over to the money jar and dumped a waterfall of coins in. "And, because of their psychopathic tendencies, we can afford our flat in two days."

"T-Two days?"

"Two days."

I was struck silent for a moment. Two days. Clutching my heart, I took a seat.

"Are you okay, there?" His smile was cocky and brilliant.

Deep breaths, Mayu. Deep breaths. With trembling hands, I took his medication out of my pocket. "Here, take it. Before I collapse on the ground and it shatters."

He gladly plucked it from my hands, then continued his parade around the table, humming the silly tune I couldn't recognize. Two days. _Two days._ I couldn't wait to tell Len.

Night. The nights were so dark. So quiet. It was after I settled on the dirt ground under my thin blanket that I realized I forgot to take the sleep medicine Miku had given me. That was okay. Sleep would dilute the excitement. Two days. When midnight stroke, it was one.

Was it fate that was finally giving me a happy life once the rest of the world was falling apart? Was it some apocalyptic "the poor will be rich and the rich will be poor" thing? _Or was this vision of a perfect life all just a—_

An agonizing gasp for breath ripped me out of my half-sleep state.

 _Delusion._

The deep, strangled breathing continued beside me. "Old Man?" I whispered. "Gakupo, what's wrong?"

He didn't answer. Swiftly, fearfully, I found the candle and matches in the dark and allowed for a yellow glow to fill the space. I stumbled like a drunkard back to Gakupo on the mattress, stiff as a board with a ghastly expression on his face, still breathing as if he was a fish out of water.

"Gakupo! Oh my God, what's happening? What's wrong? Did you take your medication?"

His wide, terrified eyes meant mine, just as wide, just as terrified, and he managed to nod.

"God, _God!_ You're not coughing. You're not coughing. What do I do? It's not—you're not coughing. This isn't normal." That's when I realized it wasn't the disease that had plagued him for so many years that was taking its effect. It was something new, something that was happening all over the city right this very second. Something out of nightmares.

"No, no, no, no, no," I said. I could feel the tears hit my thighs before I knew I was crying. "It's going to be alright, Gakupo. I promise."

"I!" he gasped. Words! He could speak. "I remember everything."

"What? What do you remember?" I choked out.

"I'm…so…sorry."

"Sh, sh. Don't say that. Their deaths weren't your fault. Nothing was your fault."

"No, no…not that…before…"

I couldn't grasp what he was talking about. "I'll forgive you if you live. Alright? Deal?"

He stopped speaking, just laid there, trembling, mouth agape, staring at the black sky.

"You're going to make it. You're going to make it. You have to. I'll have no one if you're gone."

He suddenly regained speech again just as suddenly as he lost it. "You'll have…your prince…keep hold…of your prince…Never let go."

"The Rabbit can't live without the Snake. It can't." My words were hardly words any longer, more like garbled noises, but he could still decipher them somehow.

"Yes, it must…Hey, Mayu…what's the…word for the day?" His voice was getting higher. His breath was running out. Sweat coated all of his pale skin, and the end was near. So near. Any second now.

Gripping his hand, I whispered, "Goodbye."

"Ah, I know that one…I don't…like it very much…though…" And that was it.

I'm not sure what exactly happened after that. Plenty of screaming, a sound the night was accustomed to by now. When I woke up the next morning, Gakupo's heavy head was still in my lap, and tears began to fall onto his cheek again.


	18. 85,224

The first day without Gakupo was not a day at all. The garden was not a home without him in it, the roads were not the roads without him to walk on them, the buildings were not buildings without him to see them, the sky was not the sky without him under it, and I was not the Rabbit without the Snake by my side. The entire world had shifted with the loss of one life, and I wondered with all this death if the planet was upside down by now. At least that was something similar about my and Len's worlds.

 _"Hold onto your prince."_ How could I when I'd never caught sight of him since our day together?

I told Yuka what happened that day which was not a day. She hugged me and cried with me even though she had never met my friend, brother, father, everything in between. Maybe she felt like she did know him in some way. I thanked her.

My daily rounds had become sporadic over the course of the past weeks, but now I just dumped the schedule altogether. Nobody took pity on beggars anymore, and barely anyone stayed out on the streets long enough to take notice of a stale pastry girl. Besides, I felt so weak that I could feel the paleness on my skin. Then there was the matter of the body.

How Toragay had been dealing with the issue of the overwhelming number of corpses, which usually littered the streets or were left in people's homes for days, was with mass graves. Bodies layered on top of bodies layered on top of more bodies. Man, woman, child did not matter. Sometimes they burned them in gigantic fires, while other times they did not care. However, those with remaining family who were compassionate enough chose a more traditional alternative.

I staggered through the streets on that day which was not a day, thin arms cradling a heavy burden and barely keeping a firm hold. My cargo was covered mostly by my cloak, but Gakupo's pocket knife glinted in my right hand, just in case. I stumbled and tottered to a building at the edge of the city, one which I had never been to before. It was clean and new-looking, having gotten a great deal of revenue this past month.

Inside, I dragged myself to the desk at the far end of the room. A tall, horribly gaunt man stood at it with unempathetic eyes as I struggled, hardly looking up from the metal clasps he was polishing. A few days ago, I would have probably given him a sarcastic scolding for leaving a lady such as myself claw her way over. The mirth, now, was gone.

"What can I do for you?" the man asked, still not looking me in the eye.

"I need a coffin and a grave," I replied quietly.

"Really?" He threw his judgmental eyes up and down my appearance. "Those nowadays are quite expensive."

With a giant heave, I dropped what I was hiding onto the desk. A jar, filled nearly to the brim with coins. Our jar. He finally took interest.

"I'll see what I can do. Where is the body?"

The gravedigger left me as the sun was setting. The sky faded from the golden yellow of the sun to the deep purple of twilight, and it was like I could see my entire life so far in the expanse. The future, no matter how hard I looked, was an unforgiving black.

Gakupo's tombstone wasn't a tomb or a stone, but a mini wooden cross lopsided against the breeze. There was not name across the beams, so I knelt down beside the soft soil and began carving with his knife in my horrible handwriting.

 _The Snake_

Perfect. Now, I backed up, stood, brushed the dirt off my skirt, and tried to come up with a few words that could somehow express how I was feeling.

"I'm sorry I spent all the money we saved," I said in my true voice, the one I could only use with him and maybe three other people in this whole forsaken world. "It was for a home. I realize that the garden is as much a home as I'd ever want, but you still needed one. So, there you go."

 _What else can I say?_

"I still don't know what you were apologizing for, but you're forgiven, whatever it is. I think I can forgive everyone, now, even those guys who killed my parents and anyone else who wronged me beyond what my memory can reach. Thank you for teaching me that. I know you were angry and sad most of the time but just didn't show it. Thank you for that, too. U-Um, God, you know I've never been the sentimental type." Crying, again. "You were my best friend. The Snake and the Rabbit. You and me against the world. I'll do what you said. Keep living, hold onto my prince."

And before I turned away for good. "You are the bravest man I've ever known. You deserved more than this. You damn well did."

When I spun around to hide my red and puffy face from the ghost of him, I was face-to-face with Rin Kagamine, the last person I was expecting to see, and I nearly toppled over backwards. Quickly, I swiped away all the tears on my cheeks and prepared myself for whatever she could have wanted, but instead of malice and pride in her eyes, I found something akin to pity instead.

"Mayu…Hidari," she spoke as if she was struggling to remember my name. "How horrid to meet you again under such strenuous circumstances."

"Indeed, My Lady."

"Even I cannot bear to hear such frivolous titles. May I ask who you are visiting? Personally, I am here for an old servant of mine who passed only several days ago."

I stepped aside for her to read the grave, and evidently she remembered just who the Snake was. "I see. I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. I am sorry for yours." And I really was.

"I know about you and Len. I know that he met you the other day, and I know that you two seem to…fancy each other."

"Yes."

"The me of only two weeks ago would have shuddered at the thought, but death does something strange, doesn't it? It's like the days aren't days at all," she said. I just then noticed how haggard she looked, how tired and sickly.

"I know exactly what you mean."

"I must go now. Len and I are forbidden to go outside at all. Do keep a secret, and forgive me for my past actions. Goodbye, Mayu. I feel like in another life we would be friends."

"Thank you for saying so. Goodbye."

She disappeared in a whirl of yellow, and the sun finally took its rest. The day that wasn't a day was over, and my life would have to begin again.


	19. 49,755

Extinction was a humbling experience. That was what this whole epidemic really was. Extinction. Those with the means to escape the city went to the countryside to wait out the catastrophe, but most just stayed and waited to die. Miku continued to hand out sleeping solution to relieve some of our tension, but no one slept much anyway. As for my serum, it still laid in the corner of the garden with Gakupo's things. I decided to save it for when I began showing symptoms. That way I could drift off in peace, unlike my dear friend who awaited me in the ground. Yes, extinction was a humbling experience.

Yuka offered to give me room and board at her café, but I still wanted to live in the garden. She wasn't going to let me fend for myself now that all my money was gone, so I left with a job instead, not that business was booming or anything. It was more of a way to give me coins for bread without throwing pity in my face. I would have denied any wages, but like I said, extinction was a humbling experience.

One week after I laid Gakupo down in his eternal tomb, Toragay was encompassed in an unyielding fog. I could hardly see my feet trotting along the pavement. My mood for the past days was difficult to describe. Most of the time I was just _existing,_ going through my new routine and trying to find something to do. I would think to myself that rebuilding the walls around my heart was a good thing; the walls would make me invincible. However, those walls would soon go crashing down when I remembered Miku's words from our last conversation.

 _"There is always a great number of people to lose, Mayu."_

Still no news from Len.

As I trudged my way through the white on that bleak morning, I built my walls up again, brick by brick. I had already stopped at the bakery, but Yuka said she had something important to do and she didn't want any distractions. I never did find out what that "something" was.

So, off I went, into the morning, into the smell of rotting corpses, into the silent streets. Into my silent home. A name was sitting on the tip of my tongue as I closed the gate behind me. I swallowed it and waved my arms vainly to get rid of the fog that seeped its way into even here. _Why am I not dead yet?_

My answer was on the garden table. There, becoming damper by the second as it absorbed the moisture from the air, was laid out piece of spare parchment Miku had given me for my investigation. I still used them for investigation, but for a different kind. A more pressing issue. A way to prevent the disease.

All I had so far were things that it _couldn't_ be. It couldn't have been transmitted by touch, since I was in contact with Gakupo plenty of times. It couldn't have been transmitted through the air, despite popular belief, since I spent nearly all my time outside and, correct me if I'm wrong, I was still breathing. It also couldn't have been transmitted sexually, since Yuka's parents hated each other and didn't have the energy to have affairs. I doubted their sex life was even existent, and then of course there was all the children.

What did this leave me with? Absolutely nothing. It was all so frustrating! What kind of shadow disease was this? Would all of us eventually just disappear? Would Toragay be a ghost city, only a sad annotation in a history book, an anomaly that would forever plague the curiosities of intelligent men and women for the rest of time? The most wondrous perplexity of all was the fact that I was alive, while every other homeless acquaintance and friend I knew had passed at the first sign of its insurgence.

What was different about me? I shoved my notes onto the dirt and began scouring the tea garden for answers. What did I have that other didn't? A few coins in a jar, a candle, three matches, a table, a chair, a mattress, a hairbrush, a bucket of drinking water. Rather, what didn't I have that others did? Others had a roof, others had warmth, others were normal! They got up, ate breakfast, greeted their spouse, greeted their children, went to work, cleaned the house, retrieved water from the town wells. They weren't chased away like we were. Like _I_ was, I corrected myself.

My head snapped toward the water bucket. That water…it came from the well outside of the city. Gakupo and I always drew from that one. I had a theory.

Off I went, into the morning, into the smell of rotting corpses, into the silent streets. Farther into the dying city. Farther away from my home. My container of water sloshed at my side violently, like a tumultuous sea in the center of a ravenous storm. Soon, I was at a well sprouted up in the center of a tiny square, surrounded on all sides by uneven stones and thick silence. From what I had heard, every single person in the apartments around me had perished.

 _Plop._ The bucket fell into the water far below. Taking a deep breath, I rolled up my sleeves and began drawing it back up with more difficulty than I would have liked to admit. On the brick of the well, I placed both buckets, mine and the city's, side by side. I closed my eyes to heighten my senses and poured a mouthful of water from my personal pail into my mouth. It was perfectly normal, albeit a but dirty. Then, with the same measure of care, I drank from the other bucket. It was…normal? No! No, there was something there, something I had tasted before, something bitter. What was it?

I spat it out onto the road and took a seat on the dirt to gather my bearings. Supposing the disease was in the water, it would take a while for it to show its effects. The weak would die first, such as the homeless, and those with money enough for wine and other drinks would be last. Yes, it would make sense. Every instance of the illness I had witnessed so far was gradual, and not one of them retrieved their water from the well I went to. The only obvious exception was Gakupo.

Onto my feet. I had to tell Miku.

Off I went, into the morning, into the smell of rotting corpses, into the silent streets. Silent, save for the pair of gentlemen huddled over, whispering, as they walked past me. Instinctively, I strained my ears to hear a small snippet of their conversation.

"This morning," one man said.

"Even the Kagamines aren't untouchable."

I stopped in my tracks and spun around toward them. "Excuse me!" I shouted.

They peered wearily over their shoulders.

"Excuse me, did you say a Kagamine died?"

After a questioning glance at the other, the man who first spoke answered, "Yes."

"Could you tell me, please, who was it?"

"The young daughter. Lady Rin Kagamine. Early this morning."

The air was knocked out of me, and I felt like I needed to take a seat again. No, there was someone else I had to now go to. Not Miku, not yet. First, I had to go to Len.


	20. 9,193

There was a man hobbling down the road I traveled on. His face was gaunt and his eyes were turned upward to some invisible phantom that loomed in the sky, extending its hand in comradery. The man reached out his arm like he was taking its cold, cold hand and collapsed onto the pavement, dead. Another body for the ground to feast upon.

Thousands of men, women, and children witnessed similar apparitions that day, all around the city. Death took its greatest number. Yet, I was alive.

For the last time, I entered the Kagamine household in Toragay. For the first time, I entered through the front door. No guards were stationed, presumably dead or holed up in their homes, dying. Crossing the threshold was like making these past weeks real. Len was right. Barriers were being broken. The grand barrier between life and death. I went through the halls with no interruption.

In a desperate, drunken stupor, I searched for a staircase. I had no idea where Len could be at this hour of the afternoon, but if he wasn't dead already, I would find him. I would find him and grab Miku and grab Yuka and maybe even grab Gumi and we'll all leave this place together. Water infected or not, it didn't matter. We would all be living in a ghost town before long.

"LEEEN!" I called into the desolate corridors. No one answered, but I finally stumbled upon the grand staircase, the one I floated down with the deceased Rin at my side that night when life was worth living. Already out of breath, my knees burned as I climbed and climbed, shouting his name as loudly as I could.

The floor whose cornerstone was Rin's bedroom was the only floor I knew, and the seemed to be the only floor I could bring myself to. Now, where could his bedroom be? Wild-eyed, I kept switching directions in the hallway. _Near his sister's? No, would the men's and women's rooms be separated? Was I even on the right floor? Was this entire building empty? Was he dead already?_

Tears filled my eyes as I thought of life without him. Purposeless. Once again, I would be a stranger in a strange world which I never really belonged in. I sank to my knees on the cold marble floor. God, please let him live.

Footsteps to the left. Pacing. Within one of the rooms. I forced myself to stop my useless grovelling, get to my feet, and stumble to the door of the room I heard them from. Check the knob. Unlocked. Knock feebly on the wood. The pacing entity halted. Another knock. Before I could change my mind, I let myself in.

When I saw him against the fading light in the windows, I thought my knees would fail me again. There he was, just as I remembered him, untouched by the ailing world besides the bags under his eyes and the whiteness of his skin. He was standing, facing me, a look of bewilderment on his face like he was having a hallucination. Maybe he was. Maybe I was already dead and had turned into one of those phantoms dragging another person into the depths. Gakupo must be laughing, wherever he was, if he was listening to my thoughts. How dark and dreary could one become?

"Len," I said in a hoarse voice. Part of me was furious that he didn't respond to my calling, but the other part was so relieved, nothing else mattered. "I heard about Rin. I'm so sorry. Um, I was thinking-"

I could not tell him what I was thinking, because my mind went blank as he raced over and wrapped me in his arms. The cruel world melted away for just a moment.

"I-I thought you were probably dead. Rin told me she had seen you, but that was days ago," he said, still not pulling away from the embrace.

"I heard about Rin and thought you may have been dead, too...I really am sorry about your sister. She was a good person, genuinely. At the graveyard, she was so kind."

"She was. Not many people saw that. Gakupo was a good man, too."

And here came the crying again. "Yeah, he was one of the best people in this entire city, I think."

"What's happened to us? What's happened to Toragay?"

Finally, I had to pull away. I came here for an important reason. "I think I know what's happened. At least, some of it. The disease infected the water supply. I didn't die, because my water is from a well just outside the city."

"Then, how did Gakupo die? Or Rin, or my parents?" This was the first time I had heard about his parents. "We have our own personal well in the courtyard."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. There must be something else, something stronger. Gah, I don't know yet, but no matter what it is, we have to leave Toragay."

Len looked so sad, hearing the truth. This place was our home, our families' home, but it was time to go far away, where not a single person has died from this epidemic. "You're right," he replied. "You and me."

"And Yuka and Miku. They are still alive, last I heard."

"Of course."

"Okay, pack some money and whatever you want to keep. I have a strange feeling we don't have much time. Meet me at Yuka's bakery. I'll probably be there with Miku by the time you arrive," I directed.

"Be careful out there. Desperate people do desperate things."

"Thank you."

We looked at each other for a long time, not wanting to depart. Just in case that other factor of the illness I couldn't identify snagged me before I could see him again, I got rid of the space between us and gently kissed Len on the lips. Before he could say another word, I was out of the room, down the stairs, and out into the streets again.

A newspaper, the last printed newspaper from Toragay printers, blew past my feet as the sky took on a shade of burgundy. The front headlines read:

 _"What Doctor's Name 'Sloth's Disease' Threatens All Life in Toragay! Leave While You Still Can!"_


	21. 3

_There is always a great number of people to lose, Mayu._

For whatever reason, I couldn't stop thinking of that peculiar note which sat at the bottom of that basket. The number five that disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. _Five._ Five of us will be walking out of here soon enough.

There was a time when I would walk into the Hatsune clinic and the kindling fireplace would warm me up, or the thick walls would protect me from the heat. Now, walking in on this day of reckoning, the same deadness of the outside invaded every nook and cranny. I could not feel safe even here.

"Miku!" I called out. God, I hoped I wouldn't be finding any bodies in this place.

"Mayu?" From the office door, the lean and decrepit form of Gumi appeared, the crushing weight of a messenger bag causing her tiny frame to be completely off-kilter.

I almost teared up at seeing her like this, but time was against us. "Gumi! I'm so happy that you're alive. We've got to get out of Toragay right now. You, me, Miku, Yuka, and…someone else. All of us, together."

She smiled sadly, adjusting her bag to her other shoulder. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"What? Why not?" I could not comprehend.

"I'm on the edge. My health has been declining for days now. I will no longer be living by midnight." She said it like a fact she read from an interesting book.

"Don't say that. I know what's been causing it, and if you just get away from the city, you'll be better."

She shook her head. "No. There are other reasons you couldn't understand."

"Make me understand!" I had never been overly fond of Gumi, though she had been one of the few constants in my life. However, I felt like if one more person dies, the pressure of all the departed spirits of this place would suffocate me.

"Miku and I have done horrible things. I thought I would be able to handle it, but I couldn't." She paused and looked around like she was lost. "If you're looking for Miku, she isn't here right now, but she'll be back by eleven." More looking around. "I really must be going now. Good luck and see you in another life, my friend." The poor girl shuffled past with an air of such tired resignation that I could not bring myself to stop her. It was a day of many lasts for me. This was the last time I saw Gumi Megpoid.

She was out the door with one final whisper. "The trees talk to me." Gone forever.

I let out a shuddering breath like I had seen a ghost. I probably had.

When I broke out into the streets only a minute later, she was nowhere in sight. However, it would seem that a building had caught fire at some point in the crisis and was raging one street block down from where I stood. Anarchy. Without knowing what else to do, I began heading for Yuka's bakery, trying my best to stop shivering. I could go there then come back here when Miku would hopefully have returned. We went from five to four in no time at all.

This would be the last time I stood in the Yuzuki family bakery, the last time I would see Yuka here. She was sweeping the floor so it was nice and tidy, like it was just any other night, like a lively customer would come in tomorrow morning and see the lovely, clean floors and admire how quaint the establishment looked, like any second her parents would lumber down the stairs and wish her goodnight. Those "lasts" happened a long time ago.

"Mayu! I told you not to come into work today," Yuka reprimanded. Her walls must have been built far stronger than mine.

"Yuka, let's leave the city tonight. Right now, actually. You, Len, Miku, and I can all pack our things and go together find somewhere new," I said and hoped she would understand, so I would not have to explain myself.

Her broom clattered to the floor. "You want to leave?"

"Yes."

She bounced on the balls of her feet and refused to make eye contact. "Actually, I've been thinking of leaving for a while now, but I didn't know if you wanted to. You know, I couldn't have left without you."

"You have always been too good to me, Yuka." I smiled. "Too good for this world."

Another stop needed to be made before going back to the Hatsune Clinic. The journey felt long from over, and the adrenaline faded from my system a while back. The day was over, but the night was young. I could feel every soul departing from the city like they were each a part of my own heart, taken from me. Taken by this city, taken by Death? Sometimes the rage coursing through my veins demanded a scapegoat, an instigator, a person whose throat I could wrap my hands around and squeeze. These thoughts only came at the darkest of times.

This was the last time I would be in the home of the Snake and the Rabbit. I stood between its cold walls and under the open, black sky and thanked the garden for its protection all these years. If only it could have protected Gakupo.

I couldn't think of one thing that I wanted to take with me, but it would be betraying all the memories I held in this place if I didn't bring _something._ After rummaging through all the scraps and barely usable necessities, I decided on my hairbrush as a suitable memento and grabbed Miku's sleeping tonic since no doubt I would be needing it someday, at death's door or not. Lastly, I gathered up all the parchment off of my lonely table and the ground into my arms. There was nothing left for me here.

On my way out, I ripped the sign off the gateway which read: _Property of the Snake and the Rabbit"_ and place it on top of my pile of papers. Back to Miku.

Before I entered the Hatsune Clinic for a second time that night, I waltzed right past it and to the building still in a sea of flames. Without a moment's hesitation, I threw the papers and sign into the orange whirlpool of fire. A new life awaited me. Taking my first step back toward my original destination, my eyes were still trained on the flames, and I suddenly felt myself falling.

The ground hit me hard, but I had been hit harder. The real problem was that I could feel tiny shards of broken glass against my leg. Crap, the vial of sleeping medicine must have shattered. Gingerly, as to avoid cutting myself, I sat up and turned over the pocket in my dress so the glass would fall out, covered with that greenish liquid that smelled so bitter I could almost feel it on my tongue—

Then it hits me, and I had never been hit harder.

I had smelled this before. With a trembling hand, I dabbed my finger into a tiny pool of the medicine on a piece of glass and tasted. All of a sudden, I was falling again, but it was a different kind, like it was only my stomach that plunged into the dark unknown and the rest of me remained here in an equally dark and equally unknown world. I had tasted this before, twice. The first was in Yuka's bakery, when Yuka accidentally brought in the wrong herb. The second was just today in the water from the well which by now was obviously infected—no, not infected—it had to be poison.

 _Poison._

I wanted to throw up, but nothing occupied my stomach, so I merely dry heaved, wanting so badly to just lie down on the ground and die. All the other assumptions fell into place so perfectly that I didn't even have to form them into words in my mind; I could only think of names. Meiko, Luka, Gakupo, Rin, Gumi, Yuka, Len, and finally, Miku. Miku Hatsune.

Up on my feet, I felt lighter than before. Every pore in my body was tingling and on fire with fear and anger intertwining into a single purpose: find Miku.

 _There is always a great number of people to lose, Mayu._

It was fitting now, how the clinic was just like the outside since it was actually the heart of the outside. The heart of this devastation. As long as that heart is still beating, there could be no rest. I called Miku's name at the top of my lungs, and I almost couldn't recognize my voice since it was filled with so much fury. About to storm out and search the entire city, I heard a shuffling noise on the floor above.

Nearly toppling over, I dashed for the stairs and hopped up them three at a time. Never had I been to the flat above the clinic, but it was exactly how I expected a rich person's flat to look. Clean, with wood panels along the walls and flowers in vases on tables. A long corridor stretched before with doors sporadically placed on both sides and leading to what seemed to be a sitting room. Gakupo and I may have lived in a flat like this one day, before his future was stolen.

My gag reflex went off as I was about to pass an open door to my right. After escaping the smell of corpses for even a brief moment, the unexpected potency of the stench caught me off guard. Inching just a little farther, I could see inside the doorway. It was a bedroom, with a huge, cotton bed right next to the door, where Kaito, deformed after what I would guess as two weeks of decomposition, lied with his blank and bloated face peering at me. _Oh, my God. What has she done?_

Shuffling again, closer. Ahead of me. In the sitting room. I slowly approached. Suddenly, I remembered that Gakupo's pocket knife was still in my other pocket. I pulled it out. The blade glinted in the candlelight. Closer. With abrupt quickness, I rounded the corner and pointed my weapon wildly around the little room before letting it point at the woman in the corner, the woman I once knew.

"Mayu, Gumi told me you would be coming," Miku said, smiling and trying to hide a tin cup that was clasped in her hand behind her back. She paid no mind to the knife.

The lightness I had felt evaporated, leaving me weighed down and out of breath. I couldn't help but glance behind me, toward the room where Kaito lied.

"Ah, you saw him, didn't you?" she continued. "That room is quite a mess, I'm afraid."

"Do I really need to ask 'why?' because I thought the question was painfully obvious," I replied sharply, still keeping my arms and blade up and toward her.

"I'm so tired, Mayu. Aren't you tired? Everyone is so tired in Toragay."

"Everyone is so dead in Toragay."

"They aren't dead. Take a closer look. They're merely sleeping," she said, like those statements actually made an iota of sense. "People sin because they're tired. If they can sleep, then they will no longer sin. I helped everyone sleep. I'm a doctor's daughter, you know. Helping people is what I do."

"The only person sinning here is you! Murder! You _murdered_ all those people! All my people! You murdered Gakupo!" Beneath all the white-hot anger, I wanted to cry. "Your husband!"

"I love my husband!" Miku yelled. I jumped. "I love him more than anything, but he was sinning. All those women. I once overheard you saying to Gumi one day that cheating on one's spouse is one of the three unforgiveable things. Well, I forgive him now. He won't sin anymore, because he isn't tired anymore."

Now, I was crying. This person standing in front of me couldn't be Miku. She simply couldn't. This psychopath before me could not, by any means, be my Miku, cool-headed Miku, strong and intelligent Miku, kind and generous Miku. The world couldn't be so dark that it could corrupt this woman. "Y-You're not making any sense, Miku."

She pulled the tin cup out from behind her back. Not once had her smile faltered until now. "All my life, ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of love. I told myself I would love a man with all my heart and he would love me, like a prince and a princess in a fairytale. It was like I was waiting for one specific person, like there was a piece of my missing before I met Kaito. Do you know how that feels?"

It took me a moment to make words come out of my choked-up throat. "I-I do. God, what's happened to us?"

"Yes, I suspected Len was that way to you. He, Kaito, me, you, Gumi, Yuka, I feel like we're not of this world. We were all destined to be here, and I was destined to fall in love with Kaito, and you were destined to fall in love with Len. Was I destined to become like this? Were the cards against me from the start? If so, this is an unfair world that I was never meant to be born in."

Before I could even register what was happening, she was chugging down the drink from her tin cup.

 _"No!"_

My knife fell to the ground the same moment Miku did. By the time I was kneeling at her side, Miku was sleeping, sleeping forever. Her beautiful cyan locks were splayed on the ground and framed her face so perfectly, it really did look like she was sleeping.

This was the last time I saw my friend, Miku Hatsune.

As I walked numbly through the streets, I knew it was over now. The mystery was solved, the culprit was convicted, but really, did it matter? Despite what she did, despite everything, I still wished I could walk out of Toragay together with her. Now, there were only three.

Yuka and Len were pacing outside the bakery when I arrived. Both of them rushed to me and encased me in hug, since apparently, I had been gone a long time and they thought I was dead. Part of me still thought I was dead. Miku had killed me, and she was the one alive. No, I was here. I could hear my friends' cries of relief, I could see Yuka's smile, and I could feel Len kissing me as we stood in the dead city. We didn't know at the time, but we were the only three left out of a population of 140,634.

When the question of Miku arose, I told them that she died, and that was all they needed to know for now. I pushed away their condolences and pushed them for us to be on our way. I wanted to be away from this place as soon as possible.

Hand in hand, us three together, we stood at the very edge of the city, road stretching past hills and fields to a new life.

"We can do this," Len whispered to me.

"We have to," I replied.

"What are we waiting for, then?" Yuka asked.

We stepped over the threshold of Toragay as the clock struck midnight. New place, new world, new life. I promised myself I would hold onto these two until my final day, since there always is a great number to lose.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The cyan room was much like all the rooms before it. It was beginning to feel terribly frustrating, locked in here again. Yet another woman's scream pierced my heart. How many times would this happen? How many lives must be lost before this is all over? Time was drawing to a close, I could feel it.

Next time, I needed to remember. I _needed_ to. The numbers are the key to everything. If I could just _see_ that something was off when I get the next card. If I could just _try_ to find out. The cracks were widening. Gakupo, my dear friend, remembered in his last moments, and Gumi, her words that day had faded in my memory, but now they were clear. The trees. The secret is in the trees and the numbers. _Remember, please remember._


End file.
